The Last Asashinkurīdo
by PugCurl
Summary: You only suspect what you know, for you know nothing. If you knew everything, then you would do no wrong. Learn from the value of an individual, gain the knowledge of this dark world. Remember, nothing is true; everything is permitted.
1. Beginnings and Ends

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:1 Beginnings and Ends

Stories told from the journals of The Hidden Ones.

The Warring States Period.

True to its name, it was a time of pure war. Throughout the world, small countries were battling each other for control over land and power. Because the countries were small, they went to clans of shinobi for assistance, many of which agreeing to help the one who put forth the most money. During these times, two clans reigned in supremacy; The Uchiha and the Senju. The Uchiha of course, being renowned for their dōjutsu: the Sharingan, and the Senju with their mastery in most shinobi arts. Many people would argue that none of the known clans came close to the power of the Senju or Uchiha.

 _None of the known clans._

If you were to ask, not many people could tell you about the Asashinkurīdo Clan. Most wouldn't even know we existed. You didn't know we were there, unless we wanted you to know.

 ** _TLA_**

Similar to the Uchiha, the Asashinkurīdo possess a dōjutsu called the Īgurubijon. But unlike the Sharingan, the Īgurubijon relies on all our senses. Because of this, our dōjutsu does not require chakra for the length of its use. We use our sight, touch, smell, hearing, and in the rare occasion of taste to use it. We can use it to depict how people and objects relate to us, seeing a visual aura that possesses them. It allows us to depict enemies, comrades, important targets, objects of interest, sources of information, and even plausible hiding areas; each with its own distinct aura. Also similar to the Sharingan, the Īgurubijon has an advanced form. Through mastery, the wielder's Īgurubijon can advance to a stage called the Īgurusensu. But unlike the Īgurubijon, the Īgurusensu requires the use of chakra because it further increases one's senses for its use. With the heightened senses, one could detect the slightest heartbeat of anyone in the area, depict hidden enemies, feel the emotions or intentions of others, foresee one's path, and even 'mark' people, which allows them to be seen even after the Īgurusensu has been deactivated. There were rumors that the founder of the clan unlocked the ability to peer into the memories of his victims, but no one has unlocked the ability since.

Though we pride ourselves with the ability of Īgurubijon, we are also gifted in other arts. One being chakra control. Though it is not uncommon for the occasional shinobi to be gifted in the art, or to train in the ability to master it, we in the Asashinkurīdo Clan are born with a natural finesse. Where most use it for genjutsu or medical ninjutsu, we use it in aide of our stealth, suppressing our chakra. This would hinder most, not being able to use chakra because they're trying to keep it hidden; it does no such thing for us. We train in order to do this; learning to ascend, descend, and make use of any obstacle ahead of us as quickly as possible without the use of chakra. It is something we start with our children at a very young age. We also come with a natural ability in battle instincts, something that is ingrained into our very being allowing us to fight in almost all situations; most of the clan being battle tacticians.

During the Warring States Period, we were nomadic; didn't stay in one place too long. While we were traveling everyone would suppress their chakra, allowing us to move without being detected. Now where clans like the Uchiha and Senju were popular by assisting other countries, gaining fame and fortune, we did our jobs in secret. Yet the tasks we took were unlike like the giant wars around us. We used our abilities with what we knew; stealth, assassinations, sabotage, espionage, stealing, and similar activities. It allowed countries to quietly take over instead of just going in there and blowing everything up. Though we did our tasks for far less price than most clans, we asked for one thing, which was secrecy. If you hired us, only you knew about it. And if you told someone else, you paid the consequences. Ever heard of the Land of Time?

Didn't think so.

 ** _TLA_**

Eventually, the Warring States Period came to an end, creating the 'Shinobi Organizational System' along with the Five Great Shinobi Countries. This happened after the Uchiha and Senju made amends and came together to form a pact with the Fire Country, creating Konohagakure; the Village Hidden in the Leaves. But with everything new, comes fear, and this fear had other clans doing the same thing in other countries. The Land of Earth creating Iwagakure; the Village Hidden in the Stones, the Land of Lightning creating Kumogakure; the Village Hidden in the Clouds, the Land of Water creating Kirigakure; the Village Hidden in the Mist, the Land of Wind creating Sunagakure; the Village Hidden in the Sand, and many others doing the same.

Clans began to leave their nomadic lives to become a part of these new shinobi villages; seeking protection and strength, but we did not. Our clan enjoyed the freedom of going wherever we wanted, though many a daimyō offered us fame and fortune wherever we went, creating hushed whispers of a clan that still roamed the lands as nomads. The Hidden Ones.

Not long after the Warring States Period ended, war ravaged the lands once more through the very first Shinobi World War. Work became fruitful during this time, as many countries were seeking ways to easily usurp their enemies. In fact, one of our task groups were taking part in an infiltration job as Kumo's Kinkaku Force to do a little espionage when they were attacked by a group from Konoha, which ended up in the death of their second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

But in its own time, the First Shinobi World War came to an end with an armistice treaty, the war leaving the Great Five, and many others, seriously damaged.

 ** _TLA_**

While the countries began to rebuild, the clan left to learn of the world. It was during this time that the clan was traveling through the Land of Woods when Kumonosu Valley, a hidden domain inhabited by spiders of all sizes, was discovered. The boss spider, Daichi, was impressed that the clan was able to stumble upon their home undetected and gave the clan a chance of survival. The clan leader at the time, Hideyoshi Asashinkurīdo, told Daichi the ways of the clan and that our stealth and chakra suppression was rivaled by no one else. Daichi was impressed that Hideyoshi was able to stand before him and speak without fear, as many who have stood in the same place have quivered in fear while in the presence of the giant arachnid; and so, after telling the clan about the spiders, and the unique abilities of each species, offered Hideyoshi a challenge. If Hideyoshi was able to last through ten minutes of combat with Daichi, then Daichi would bestow upon the clan the great honor and ability to summon his family. Upon further discussion with the clan, Hideyoshi accepted Daichi's offer; ten minutes later becoming the very first summoner of the Kumonosu Valley Spiders, and many years afterwards becoming the very first spider sage.

 ** _TLA_**

After twenty years of travel, the clan returned to the Great Five Shinobi Countries; however, the economic difference between the countries became a serious issue. Because of this, certain countries under the pretext of 'expending fair rights' began using military force to gain more territory; thus, sparking the beginning of the Second Shinobi World War.

During this war, our clan traveled through Amegakure many times. Amegakure, like many of the smaller villages and countries, suffered greatly during the Second Shinobi World War. Unlike the battles from the first war, much of the large-scale battles took place in the smaller countries, leaving them completely devastated. It was after the war ended that our clan got most of its work, traveling from village to village in the minor countries to help them rebuild.

It was during this time that the Asashinkurīdo Clan adopted a new Creed, honoring the lives of the innocents who could not protect themselves. Our new Creed was based on three tenets: Keep your blade away from the blood of the innocent, search for peace in all things, and never betray your comrades. We adopted the Creed and three tenets to protect and fight on the behalf of those who do not possess the abilities, resources, or knowledge to speak out against those who abuse their power, and it's a belief we will live for—for the rest of our lives.

 ** _TLA_**

After years of so called 'peace', the reign of the Five Great Shinobi Countries was beginning to falter due to a decline in national power. Along their borders, constant battles between the smaller countries were breaking out and only continued to grow. The engagements eventually spread like disease, and the Third Shinobi World War was born. This war, again, being different from the other two warranted flashbacks to the Warring States Era. Many young lives were thrown, and lost, needlessly into the war due to the shortage of warring capabilities of the Great Nations.

During the First and Second Shinobi Wars, the clan would take jobs from either side of the border, but this time it was different. In order to follow our Creed, the clan would defend the villages and people who could not defend themselves from the foreign threats. Though it hurt to slay children right out of their learning years, the clan stood firm in its beliefs in defense of the innocents.

While passing through a deserted village bordering the Land of Lightning, the clan discovered the Third Raikage battling an estimated ten-thousand shinobi while his subordinates retreated. Curious of the outcome, and out of respect for the Raikage, the clan stayed to witness who would come out on top. With nearly three days and nights passing by, the battle was almost a one-sided massacre where the Raikage, even with life threatening injuries, was able to kill almost all opposing him. Those that had been able to escape the Raikage's rampage, were then struck down by the clan, for it was deemed cowardice to run from such an honorable battle. Hideyoshi, in his old age, approached the fallen Raikage after the field fell silent and praised him for the courage he showed in order to defend his subordinates. 'A' informed him that he cared greatly for the people of his village, and that he would gladly sacrifice himself for the future generations. Hideyoshi grew great respect for the man, and upon 'A's death summoned one of the spider-kin to return his body to Kumogakure in order to inform them of the great deed their leader, now deemed "The Strongest Shield of Kumo" by The Hidden Ones, had performed for them.

Eventually both the Tsuchikage and Hokage grew weary of sacrificing more lives to ongoing stalemates, finalizing a peace treaty and once more bringing 'peace' to the Great Five.

 ** _TLA_**

After the Third Shinobi World War, rumors began to leak into the main land from the Land of Water. Whispers of the Mizukage Yagura being a tyrant were going around, and that his actions were more than likely going to lead to a civil war within the country. The clan leader at the time, Ryouichi Asashinkurīdo, decided that these rumors should be investigated and so the clan headed for the Land of Water.

Upon arrival, several clansmen were sent to Kirigakure to investigate. When they returned, they informed the clan that the rumors were true. They discovered that Yagura's reign was polluting Kirigakure with corruption. Instead of the village leaders caring for the village and its people, many were in a battle for power. The village was nicknamed 'The Bloody Mist' because there used to be a tradition where students who wanted to graduate had to fight to the death. The tradition was later eradicated because a boy named Zabuza Momochi, not even a student, massacred an entire graduating class. On top of that, Yagura lead the people of the village into believing that those with kekkei genkai should be regarded with suspicion. Because of this, many kekkei genkai users were persecuted and even murdered because of something that wasn't within their control.

With the information that was gathered, Ryouichi ruled that Yagura was unfit for the title that he held and that his removal would lead to the prosperity of Kirigakure. So Ryouichi and the clan elders began to plan the assassination of the Yondaime Mizukage. Little was it known that this very action would lead to the end of the Asashinkurīdo Clan.

After a few days passed, the clan was approached by a masked man who knew of the assassination plans. He claimed to be the long thought dead Madara Uchiha, but the Īgurusensu detected his lie. The Madara fake informed Ryouichi that they should stop their plans and leave the Land of Water or pay the consequences. Ryouichi told him that Yagura was everything that went against The Creed of their clan, that his removal would help Kirigakure, and that they could not stop their plans for the sake of the innocents being slaughtered within the village. The stranger decided he would give him one more day to reconsider, and then he would return for his answer. After the declaration, the masked man vanished but Ryouichi's decision would not waver. Some of the most skilled assassins within the clan, other than Ryouichi himself, were later sent to Kirigakure in order to assassinate Yagura. Upon their return, the clan would then take their leave from the Land of Water.

Many hours passed by, yet no one returned from the village that night.

 ** _TLA_**

The following day the masked man returned, and with him came six other men deemed the Six Paths of Pein carrying the bodies of the clansmen who were sent into Kiri. The sight of his fallen clansmen filled Ryouichi with grief, pain, and anger. He challenged the seven men to honor the deaths of the fallen, and upon his honor ordered the rest of the clan to stay out of the fight unless he perished, believing the clan could end what was started.

The battle that occurred lasted for most of the day. Ryouichi was able to take down three of the six Paths and severely injure 'Madara', but before he could do any more damage, Ryouichi was struck with a life-threatening injury and collapsed onto the ground. Before ending Ryouichi's life, Madara applauded him for his efforts and the ability to down three of the six Paths, but because of his foolishness to obey, his whole clan was going to be wiped out which he would be forced to witness.

The events that occurred next were nothing short of a massacre. Men, women, children, and even babies were slaughtered before a helpless Ryouichi, who could only weep as his family was taken from him.

After taking the life of Ryouichi, the remaining Paths and masked man left the area, believing their work to be done. Little did they know that less than five miles away, new life breathed into the world and would continue what the clan had started.

 ** _TLA_**

After the massacre.

Stories told from the journals of a widow.

Minori Asashinkurīdo, with a small bundle cradled in her arms, stood before the bodies of her fallen clansmen. Collapsing to the ground onto her knees she began to weep, her tears filled with anguish and despair. Before her laid Ryouichi Asashinkurīdo, the fallen leader of the clan and her husband.

Days before the planned assassination, she began having complications with her pregnancy and it was decided that for the baby's safety, she was to stay at a hospital in a nearby town to prevent further issues from occurring. Following the assassination of Yagura, Ryouichi was supposed to return in order to be there for the birth. After a few days, no on returned and Minori went into labor, giving birth alone in the hospital.

Minori mourned for days, going body to body paying her respects to the fallen. Upon a clansmen's death, it is tradition within the clan to burn the body and store the ashes into a sealing scroll in order present it to the families of the fallen. In the event that the fallen has no direct remaining family members, the scroll is taken to Kumonosu Valley and presented to their Alpha Summon, which is the first spider they ever summoned. In the case of children who have yet to sign the contract, their ashes would also be presented to either parent's Alpha Summon.

Once the ashes of each member were placed into their respective scrolls, they were then placed into family scrolls, and then finally placed into a larger clan scroll. After her work was finished, she went through the rest of the clan's belongings before removing the evidence of anyone ever being there. When she was finally ready to take her leave, she vowed to not let the beliefs of the clan to die in the world, and that her and her husband's daughter, Tomiko, would be raised to carry on The Creed.

 ** _TLA_**

It took six months for Minori to reach Kumonosu Valley. With her daughter's age and frail body, she had to stop at several villages along the way in order to prevent the infant from catching any illnesses. When the Kumonosu Spiders heard what happened to the clan, they were devastated. She regretted that she could not have told them sooner, but she began having difficulties molding chakra after giving birth and was unable to summon anyone; which they understood.

After the spiders were able to properly mourn their summoners and families, it was decided that a shrine was to be made in honor of the clan. The clan shrine was built on a small lake in the middle of the valley. Centered in the middle of the shrine was the clan scroll holding the ashes of the fallen, on the wall behind it read the Three Tenets reminding all who looked upon it to remember The Creed that the clan lives for, on the left sat a mannequin adorned in the robes of Isamu Asashinkurīdo; founder of the clan, and on the right sat a mannequin adorned in the robes of Hideyoshi Asashinkurīdo; the Spider Sage.

When a child of the clan turns three, their Īgurubijon awakens. Once this happens they are officially allowed to partake in clan rituals and training. One of the rituals included the official initiation of the child into the clan by the clan leader, where they would learn about The Creed and dedicate themselves to it. After the initiation, the child's left ring finger would be branded with the clan symbol and then they'd be bestowed the clan gauntlet; the Hidden Blade, the signature weapon used by the members of the clan. After the initiation clan training would begin. This included heavy training in tactics, stamina, physical strength, chakra control, stealth, ninjutsu, taijutsu, bukijutsu, use of the clan dōjutsu, and basic training in fūinjutsu, genjutsu, and medical ninjutsu. After a member's training in each area is deemed acceptable, they would then be granted the right to sign the Spider Summoning Contract allowing them to establish their Alpha Summon.

With Daichi's blessing, Minori stayed in Kumonosu Valley until Tomiko's third birthday. During their stay, she watched fondly as her daughter formed a close bond with many of the spiders. Before leaving she decided to stop by the clan shrine, where she officially initiated Tomiko into the clan. Minori taught her about their Creed, the story behind becoming spider summoner's, the scroll containing the ashes of their family, and the traditions behind it. Once they left the shrine, she watched proudly as her daughter swore to never give up in bringing justice to their fallen clan and that one day it would be restored to its former glory.

 ** _TLA_**

They travelled continuously for a year. Every day Minori would put Tomiko through a rigorous training regimen. From sunrise to sunset it was constant movement, training, and learning with small breaks allowed for nutrition and rest. Like most members of the clan, Tomiko showed great aptitude in chakra control, stealth, and understandings in battle tactics. But Minori was greatly shocked, and very proud, when her daughter also appeared to accel in the other arts as well. Tomiko's ability in taijutsu, bukijutsu, and use of the Īgurubijon was much higher than any recorded child of her age. Most children while standing still could keep the Īgurubijon active for about an hour, Tomiko was able to move at decent speeds and keep it active for double the time.

While traveling through the Land of Waves, Minori and Tomiko stumbled upon a group of bandits attacking a small group of people. There were two men holding what appeared to be 'weapons' standing defensively in front of a heavily pregnant woman. Thinking quickly, they _moved_ , killing off most of the bandits before they even knew they were there. The older man of the group, Tazuna, thanked Minori and her daughter heartily, telling them that his daughter, Tsunami, was having complications with her pregnancy, so he along with her husband were escorting her to the nearest hospital because their village didn't have one. Knowing the pains of pregnancy complications, Minori told them that they would escort them to the nearest hospital, so if there were any more bandits along they way they could handle them.

Unfortunately, Tsunami went into labor on the way there. But thanks to the foreknowledge of the clan's medical training, Minori was able to help her successfully deliver. She gave birth to a small boy, and upon hearing this Tazuna began crying tears of joy because he wouldn't know what to do with a daughter and a grand-daughter.

Tsunami smacked him on the head for this.

Before they left, Tsunami asked if Minori or Tomiko had any suggestions for her son's name. At first Minori declined, saying it was the right of the parents to name their child, but Tsunami and her husband insisted saying that without her or her daughter they may not even be alive. Eventually she gave in and asked if Tomiko had any suggestions for a name. After watching her daughter give a quick thought, she suggested the name Inari, to which they agreed upon. Once again, they thanked Minori and Tomiko for their kindness and hoped to meet again in the future.

 ** _TLA_**

Another year went by and Tomiko's training continued to grow increasingly more difficult, but Minori was proud of the progress her daughter was achieving and on Tomiko's fifth birthday presented her with her own set of Asashinkurīdo Clan robes. She told her daughter that the robes were made from a special silk of the spiders back in Kumonosu Valley, and that they were imbued with their chakra that allows them to adjust to the size of the person wearing them; like some of the materials in the clan gauntlets.

The robes themselves are an off white and are meant to be worn over normal clothing. The upper body of the robes has a connected hood with the center pointing out to resemble an eagle's beak and the torso bearing an open collar. The lower part of the robes is double layered, with the back trailing out longer than the front. Along with the robes comes a leather spaulder that is attached to a black and red cape embroidered with the clan insignia, it also comes with a red sash and belt meant to be warn around the waist. The belt has pouches attached to it, meant for scrolls, shuriken, smoke bombs, medicines, and poisons. The front of the belt is held together by an ornate clan insignia, holding sheaths meant for kunai and a sword.

After her daughter put on the robes she smiled, tearing up as she presented her daughter with a scroll. Inside the scroll is a single-edged black katana. The handle resembles the image of an eagle, and a golden chain was connected to it that held the clan symbol. The katana was Ryouichi's personal blade and was held previously by Hideyoshi. It was made in the beginning of their summoning contract, crafted with a fang from an elder spider that had recently passed. This allows the sword to conduct the chakra of its user, and it's been rumored that only a blade made of the same material can destroy it.

 ** _TLA_**

A few months passed, and during one of their taijutsu sessions, Minori collapsed. She began to run a high fever, but the closest village was more than a week's travel away, and in her condition Tomiko would have to support her which would make the travel time even longer. They made camp next to a small stream in order to have easy access to a water source. As the next few days went by, Minori began to grow weaker and weaker. She was proud that her daughter tried to help her, but knew that whatever was affecting her was out of their control. So, every day her daughter would train, check her condition, help her eat, and go back to training.

This pattern continued every day until one day, Minori knew it was the end. When Tomiko came back from training, she called her daughter over. She grabbed onto her daughter's hand and told her how proud she was, that she was proud to have Tomiko as her daughter, and that she knew she'd grow up to become a strong kunoichi. She believed her daughter to have a special power, that one day she could surpass all who have become before her, and she believed with all of her heart that Tomiko would. In Minori's final moments, she told Tomiko about the traditions when handling death within the clan and that she would like to be returned to the shrine in Kumonosu Valley to be stored along with her husband.

Minori brought Tomiko's head down to her lips to kiss her forehead, whispering how much she loved her daughter, before closing her eyes for the final time.

 ** _TLA_**

Alone.

Stories told from the journals of an orphan.

Tomiko sat there holding onto her mother's hand for what felt like an eternity. With tears uncontrollably running down her cheeks, she continued to stare at the now peaceful face of her mother. Seconds went by that felt like hours, and minutes went by that felt like days but her body refused to move from that position. It wasn't until she was on the brink of exhaustion that she was finally able to let go of Minori's hand. Tomiko dressed her mother in traditional clan garments before cremating her, honoring her memory by now wearing Minori's clan gauntlet on her right forearm.

After Minori's ashes were stowed away in the sealing scroll, Tomiko decided to go through her mother's bag to find any other mementoes. Inside it, she found a picture of her parents and cradled the image to her chest. Another item she found was a journal, but it wasn't her mother's journal. Inside its pages was the history of the clan, scrawled out in many different handwritings. There were dates going back to the age of the founder, stories of the clan's actions throughout the Warring States Period, recollections of all the passed Shinobi World Wars, lists of all the past clan leaders, the first meeting between the spider sage Hideyoshi and Daichi, the plans for the assassination of the Mizukage named Yagura, and the day the clan was approached by a mysterious masked man. It described that the man wore a black cloak, and his face was covered by an orange mask that had a black flame design. The last log in the journal read that this masked man claimed to be an Uchiha long thought dead, and that if the clan didn't leave the Land of Water consequences would be put in place.

Anger began to pool itself in the pit of Tomiko's stomach. This masked man, this _Uchiha_ , was the reason her clan was wiped out. But where the anger continued to grow, determination grew with it. She now has a description of the culprit, and this 'Madara Uchiha' as he called himself, will come to justice.

 ** _TLA_**

It took Tomiko one year to return to Kumonosu Valley, vague memories and images leading her way. The spiders were once again devastated to hear about Minori's passing but were proud of Tomiko's determination to bring her back. She was allowed to stay with the spiders for however long she wished, which Tomiko was grateful for. The spiders here have always felt like family, and they would look after the last child of their beloved summoner's.

But thinking of how life could have been, how life would have been amongst the members of her clan, Tomiko can't help but feel a bit lonely. When she looks at her reflection in the waters surrounding the shrine, all she sees is a little girl all by herself.

She is Tomiko Asashinkurīdo.

Last of the Asashinkurīdo Clan.

 **Author's Notes:**

[04/04/18] I decided to come back and update this chapter, for I have never really liked it. The idea of the history lesson was to place Tomiko's clan within the folds of the story. The point of view changes in the next chapters, which could be found weird I guess. Should I change that?

Obviously, this is my first attempt at a FF series or story, but I love the Assassin's Creed game series and Naruto. One night after playing Syndicate, I went to bed and this story hopped into my head and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Depending on how motivated I get, chapters may or may not be out regularly It'll be safer for me to say not, that way no one's hopes are up and then crushed. But thank you for reading through my little chapter, I hope you sort of enjoyed it!

[04/04/18] I push myself to make every chapter I post over 5,000 words, and I'll be honest with you that a lot of the current chapters are pulled from the top of my mind and are on the go. I do think about TLA onstantly, and hope that whenever it reaches a specific point in the story I will be able to start posting more fluidly. Thank you to anyone who has stood by with patience, I'm almost finished with the next chapter.

Until next time!


	2. Spiders and New Beginnings

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:2 Spiders and New Beginnings

Two years have gone by since the passing of my mother, and I've been living amongst the spiders continuing with my training. Though sometimes I stop to think if I've made an awful mistake…

"Miiiiikooooooo-chaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnn," a voice in the distance called out.

' _Run, run, run, run, run, RUN!'_

' _Damn it, where to hide…where to hide…'_

"Miko-chaaaaaaannn, come out and plaaaayyyyy," the voice was getting closer.

' _If I don't find a place to hide soon I'll-'_

Before I could finish my thought, a giant glob of webs came shooting at me, pinning me to a tree.

"I got 'chu Miko-channn~" said the voice now hidden in the tree's.

"Damn it Kenta-nii! Can't you see I'm trying to train?" I asked puffing my cheeks out. Even for a spider I could tell he was smirking at me.

Kenta is the youngest son of Daichi. Even though he's many years older than I am, he's relatively young in spider years. Comparatively speaking, it's like he's my age.

"You are training!" He said with a hint of playfulness in his voice, "I'm just helpiiiiiing~"

"How is this in any way, shape, or form helping?" I deadpanned.

"Huehuehue," he chuckled. "I'm just helping you with your evasion! Obviously, you need to train harder if I can catch you this easily!" I swear I could see his eyes shimmer.

"Come now Kenta-chan," said a new voice behind us. Kenta-nii was bristling at the -chan suffix. "You shouldn't be picking on Tomiko-chan or interrupting her training."

"Thank you, Ayaka-nee!" ' _Finally someone who understands!'_

"Even if she does make it easy."

' _Ayaka-nee, noooo!'_

"Aya-neeeeeeeeeeee," I pouted with my lower lip out.

Ayaka is the older twin hatchling to Kenta by a few minutes, which is why she uses the suffix -chan.

"I'm just kidding Tomi-chan," she began. "But I came because father wishes to see you."

' _Jiji wishes to see me? I wonder what for?'_

"Daichi-sama-jiji wishes to see me?" She nodded, "Would you know what for, Aya-nee?"

"He didn't tell me for what reason he wished to see you," she said. "I was just told to find you and tell you to meet him at the burrow whenever you're free."

"Oh," I said. "Well thank you Aya-nee." She gave me a spider like smile and left. I then looked at Kenta, waiting for him to notice.

"What?" he asked.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" _Still waiting…_

"Oh yeah!" ' _Finally!'_ "I should go ask Ayaka-nee what we're having for dinner tonight!" and just like that, he was gone.

"No! You were supposed to let me down!"

' _GAAAAAAHHHH'_

 _ **TLA**_

Before heading to meet with Daichi-sama-jiji, I decided to stop by the clan shrine. Walking across the water of the lake I began to feel anxious, I haven't visited here in a while. Opening one of the twin doors, I went inside and kneeled before the scroll bearing my clan's ashes, lighting incense before giving a short prayer.

"I'm sorry I haven't visited in a while," I began. "I've been busy training, which I know isn't a good excuse. I want you all to know that I'm getting stronger every day, and though I'm only eight now, when I am older I know I'll be strong enough to bring you justice." I clenched my fists after they started shaking, after a deep breath I continued.

"Father," I said quietly. "I never got the chance to meet you, but I remember mother's stories. Every day I train with your sword, I know you are watching over me. I will master the blade, father, and I will make you proud of me." Another deep breath, "Mother, I miss your guidance. Every day I am working to become the strong kunoichi you said I would." I took a glance at the gauntlet on my right forearm, "Your gauntlet may be a little more worn out that mine and not as knew, but just like dad's sword I can feel you watching over me whenever I wear it."

Standing back up, I placed my right arm over my chest to recite our code of honor, "I, Tomiko Asashinkurīdo, will honor my name and my clan. I will stay my blade from the blood of the innocent, but will seek those who abuse their powers. I will remember to seek peace in all things, but will bring justice to those who seek otherwise. I will never betray my comrades, but will seek out those who harm them. I promise to live my life by The Creed, and will teach those who are willing to learn. May the clan's spirit live through me." Dropping my arm back to my side, I bowed deeply. "I must go now. Daichi-sama-jiji asked to see me and I do not wish to keep him waiting too long. I promise to visit again very soon."

' _Now off to see Daichi-sama-jiji! Then maybe I'll go grab something to eat, hopefully they have more than just insects this time…BLEGH! Then back to training. Maybe I'll work on my ninjutsu or even-'_

"You know, you're quite the grown-up for a child," a voice said. "I think your mother would be proud."

Stopping mid-thought, I turned to reply to the spider. "Thank you Katashi-ojisan," I said smiling. "I'm happy to hear you think she would be."

Katashi was the Alpha Summon of my mother. He has helped me through some very dark times these last two years, and I've come to view him as someone very precious to me.

"Of course she would be," he said. "You're doing your clan proud."

Blushing deeply, I pulled my hood to cover more of my face. "You really think so?" I asked.

He chuckled at the sight of my nervousness. "I know so," he said. "You are a very brave to carry all of this upon your shoulders, but you never give up, even if you turn as red as a tomato ripe for picking."

…Further into my hood I go.

"Hohoho," he chuckled again. "You must not let yourself get flustered so easily. People will be able to tell you are fun to pick on!"

"K-katashi-ojisan!" I sputtered out.

"Hohohoho," his eyes were twinkling. "I am sorry my child, you just remind me so much of your mother."

"That's what everyone says, Katashi-ojisan," I stated. "But then they always say, 'but you've got your father's eyes!'"

"Well it is quite true," he began. "You look just like your mother did when she was your age, and your eyes are just as golden as your fathers were! But your hair may be a bit whiter than your mothers was."

"Ojiiiisan, how could white be whiter than white?" I deadpanned.

"Hohoho…"

"You are always so silly Katashi-ojisan," I said smiling. "But I must get going. Daichi-sama-jiji wishes to see me, and I don't want to make him wait too long."

"Ah yes," he said. "My regards young one, I shall not keep you here any longer."

"Thank you," I smiled. "Later on, I was thinking of working with my father's sword. Would you care to join me then?"

He gave me his best spidery smile, "Of course I would young one. Now make haste, don't want to keep Daichi-sama waiting, right?"

"Yes of course! I will see you later! Maybe we could get something to eat beforehand, but not insects!"

' _Oh child, you never cease to amuse me.'_

 ** _TLA_**

"Daichi-sama-jiji," I yelled running into the burrow. "Sorry to keep you waiting! After Aya-nee came and found me I went to go visit the clan, and then had a short conversation with Katashi-ojisan. But I rushed right on over afterwards!"

Daichi is still the leader of the spiders and is absolutely massive. Though he is rather fluffy to touch due to the hairs on his legs, but those same hairs could be quite dangerous when he wants them to be.

"Tomiko-chan," he said in his low booming voice. "Come, come sit. We have much to discuss young one."

"Yessir," I said enthusiastically. "What is it you wish to discuss with me, Jiji?"

"Tell me," he began. "How has your training been coming along these last two years?"

"Perfect!" I said smiling.

He chuckled, spiders really like to chuckle. "Try to be more specific this time."

I blushed, "Oh, heh. Sorry Jiji, let me try that again."

"My chakra control and stealth are coming along nicely, and Katashi-oji said that my ability to conceal my chakra is far above what anyone has ever had at my age, but that does not mean I have started slacking off in its training! My physical strength and stamina is coming along great for my age and I can keep up with most of the tracking spiders without using much chakra now. My taijutsu has grown with my stamina and physical strength, and I have begun to incorporate my own style into the clan techniques."

Daichi nodded and directed me to continue.

"Moving on! My genjutsu has gotten better with the help of some of the spider techniques, but I feel as though I would need to learn under a master for my fūinjutsu or medical abilities to grow from where they are currently. My ninjutsu is coming along smoothly as my reserves grow, and I train daily in the arts of bukijutsu. Though I do lean more towards the kenjutsu side of it, I do not forget about the others. Later today I will be meeting up with Katashi-ojisan to work with my father's sword. I think I'm ready to try and use my chakra with it."

"I see," he said. "I'm happy of your achievements. Now tell me, how is your Īgurubijon coming along?"

"Well," I started. "I'm not quite sure how it would compare to others my age, but I think it's coming along quite well. I am able to keep it active up to five hours while moving at high speeds, and my vision with it has increased to nearly half a mile."

"You really never cease to amaze me." He said with a hint of pride behind his words.

And here comes the blush…"Th-thank you, Jiji."

"Do you believe your abilities to be acceptable in use?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.

"Well," he began. "If you were to rank your abilities for practical uses right now, would you deem them acceptable for combat?"

"Oh," I scratched my chin. "I believe I can hold my own. My stamina, stealth, chakra control, taijutsu, dōjutsu, and bukijutsu are above average for my age where my physical strength, fūinjutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and medical ninjutsu are just above average. I could easily incapacitate anyone not trained in the shinobi arts, genin, and most low-level chūnin. I also believe that if I wasn't taken seriously or caught someone off guard, I'd be able to incapacitate high-ranking chūnin and on rare occasions some low-level jōnin."

Daichi closed his eyes in thought. We sat there in a few moments of silence before he opened his eyes and spoke again.

"Tomiko-chan, I believe you are ready to sign the summoning contract."

A beat.

"You really think so, Jiji?!"

"Yes," he said. "I deem you capable of becoming a spider summoner, and seeing as though it's tradition in your clan to receive the honor of signing the contract when you've reached this far, then why not?"

"Sweet baby Kami! I am so excited." I exclaimed pumping my fist, but a few seconds later a blush crept its way back onto my face. I was being stared at with amused eyes.

"Ehem," I cleared my throat then bowed deeply. "Thank you for this honor Daichi-sama, I will not let you down."

"You are most welcome," he said with a giant spidery smile. "Now let me call for Dakune!"

A few seconds passed and there was a small poof in front of myself and Daichi.

"How may I be of service, Daichi-sama," asked the smaller spider.

"Tomiko-chan has just earned the right to sign the summoning contract," he said. "If you could be so kind as to present the scroll to her?"

"Of course, Daichi-sama."

Moments later a giant scroll unraveled itself from Dakune's abdomen, which was pretty weird. On the inside of the scroll, I saw the names and fingerprints of all the members who have had the chance to sign it before me. I ran my fingers over the names of my mother and father; they were right next to each other.

"Now Tomiko-chan," began Daichi. "You will need to write your name down in blood, and then put a little bit on your fingers to leave five prints. Okay?"

"Yessir," I shouted.

I extended the blade on my left gauntlet and used it to prick the thumb on my right hand. After I finished writing my name and placing my fingerprints, the scroll rolled itself back up to Dakune's abdomen and he poofed back out of existence.

"Not too social that one," said Daichi. He then looked to me with a touch of seriousness in his eyes. "Now Tomiko-chan, you are the youngest person to ever sign this contract. So, I want to be rather blunt with you about your Alpha Summon."

"Y-yes," I stammered. "What i-is it Jiji?"

' _Please don't be bad, pleeeeaasssse don't be bad.'_

"Though your abilities show you are now capable to battle alongside my kin," he began. "I do not wish for you to begin summoning us."

I started to pout with my lower lip.

"Now, now Tomiko-chan," he said sagely. "This is for your own safety. If you were to attempt to summon one of us and didn't have the chakra capable of doing so, it could kill you. I want you to wait until you are a little bit older."

"I understand Jiji-sama."

He just chuckled at my nickname. "Good, I'm glad that you understand that. Now, I just have one more thing I wish to discuss with you."

I just raised my brow at him.

"How do you feel about leaving the Valley?"

 ** _TLA_**

"Soooooo…you think it would benefit me if I were to live in a village?"

"Yes."

"And not just any village, but a shinobi village?"

"Correct."

"Because for some reason you think I'll just be able to waltz into any shinobi village and be welcomed?"

"Tomiko-chan," Daichi said. "You are an orphan, even if you have been living with us for the past two years. You have no ties or connections to any other people besides your clan, which means you should be able to get into most villages. I would recommend Kumogakure or Konohagakure, but the decision is left up to you where you decide to go. I believe that if you were a part of a shinobi village it could help you find the person responsible for the clan massacre, plus it wouldn't hurt you to have some friends who are actual people."

"But Jiji," I said pouting. "I like living here with you all, and I think I'd be just as capable finding the one responsible for the massacre with your help. I think you want me to go to a shinobi village just so I don't become some inhumane person who acts like a spider."

"I will not comment on that," he said. "But don't you think it will be good for you to meet people your own age?"

I rolled my eyes. "I honestly don't think it'll matter. But do you really think it will?"

He nodded. "Plus, you could always move to a shinobi village and end up finding a mate for yourself when you're older."

' _Holy heat to the face.'_ "J-j-j-jiji!" I ended up stammering out. "Th-that is a r-ridiculous thought! I am only eight years old."

"Hohoho," he chuckled. "My dear, mating is a glorious aspect to life! Plus, how else do you think you're going to get your clan up and running again? Asexual reproduction? Hohoho…"

"I refuse to comment." I said puffing my cheeks out.

"I still think it'll be good for you," he said. "Plus, if I were to tell you to leave there'd be nothing you could do about it. Hohoho!"

"Okay, okay Jiji. Fine," I said. "If you think it'll be good for me, I will. You're like a-bajillion years old, so you probably know a thing or two, fufufu."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever," he said. "I have nothing more I need to discuss with you, so you may leave to meet up with Katashi now if you wish. Thank you for your time, Tomiko-chan."

 ** _TLA_**

"And that's why Daichi-sama-jiji thinks I should move to a shinobi village."

"I agree," Katashi said. "I think living amongst people will benefit you greatly."

"Well if you think so Ojisan, then I suppose I should actually go through with it." I said.

"Were you not going to originally?" He asked.

"I may or may not have been considering on just staying here." I pouted crossing my arms.

We walked in comfortable silence until we reached a large open field that I use for training.

"So, Tomi-chan," Katashi began. "I know you wanted to work with your father's sword today, but I know that's not all you asked me out here for."

' _Drats…'_

"Er," ' _How to play this off smoothly…'_ "I know how you have felt about sparring with me in the past, but I want to ask you to spar with me! I know I am young and you do not wish to hurt me, but I feel as though my skills have progressed far enough and that I am ready to test my skills with you." I bowed respectfully to my pseudo-spider-uncle. "So please, Katashi-ojisan, allow me the honor with sparring against you!"

I remained in my bow while Katashi sat in silence. Every second that ticked by made me feel like he was going to say no. Because how hard was it to say yes? I mean, you just said yes so it couldn't be that hard.

"All right."

"You mean it, Ojisan!?" I asked, straightening out like a flash.

"Yes," he said. "I feel as though you have grown quite well these two years, and that you might be able to last a few minutes against me without getting hurt too bad."

' _Only a few minutes? I'll show you Ojisan!'_

"I'll show you a few minutes Ojisan!" I said while puffing my cheeks out.

Getting into my fighting stance, I pulled my father's sword out and held it above my head, holding my left arm in front of me defensively with my Hidden Blade extended and fist balled.

Katashi is a part of the branch known as huntsman spiders, which is the branch that specializes in quick and agile combat. Katashi's specific species is the giant huntsman spider, but he is the smallest one alive in the branch; slightly bigger than an average adult male. But he is still one of the best fighter's, and because of his size, one of the better sparring partners for me. His fighting stance was crouched with his two most front facing legs being held in the air, giving off a false impression of a weak-spot, but I knew better than that.

We stood, staring each other down before Katashi made the first move, dashing forward quickly and extending each of his legs in quick succession. Each of his blows were quick and powerful, and I found myself being pushed back towards the tree-line. Rolling out of the way of one of his shots, his leg went barreling into the tree behind me, blowing it to shreds.

"Holy crap, Ojisan! Are you trying to kill me!?"

"Hohoho…"

' _Okay Tomiko, get your head in the game. If you want I want to start getting Ojisan, I'll have to get him on the defensive so he can't use all of his legs to attack.'_

Switching into offense, I quickly dashed at him. Dodging a few quick blows and sliding under his final strike I got into the space between his legs and body. Unfortunately for me, he used his abdomen and back four legs to support himself in a standing like position and began attacking with his remaining legs. We began trading blows, and it was much easier fending off four legs instead of eight.

' _Okay, I think it's a good time to try putting my chakra into the blade. Let's see if this works…'_

Pushing my chakra into the sword, I could hear a slight humming noise coming from it. Katashi went to strike me on the side with one of his legs, and I went to counter it with my sword but it cut straight through his leg, severing it in half. Shocked by what I had just done, I didn't notice Katashi's next attack coming at me. It struck home and I went tumbling back and landed hard on my back. Hacking up a quick shot of blood I flipped myself back onto my feet, but Katashi was faster. As I landed he got low to the floor and spun quickly, knocking my legs out from under me once again. As soon as I landed, Katashi came barreling down on me and dug his fangs into the earth on both sides of my head.

"I win."

"Y-yeah…"

 ** _TLA_**

"Don't you think you should be getting up by now?"

"No…No I think I'm good down here."

"Come now Tomiko-chan, you didn't lose that badly."

"But Ojisan, I don't think you're taking into consideration that I CUT YOUR FRIGGIN LEG OFF."

"Oh what, this?" He said wiggling his nubby limb at me. "Merely a flash wound. Besides, it'll grow back in due time. I'm more worried that you froze right afterwards. You left yourself completely wide open for an attack. What was that?"

"Well," I started. "I wasn't expecting it to happen in the first place. I wanted to try running my chakra through the sword, but I had to no idea it was going to go straight through your friggin leg! If I knew that was going to happen I would have totally followed through with the blow. I was just surprised is all? I mean, I never wanted to actually hurt you."

"Tomiko-chan," Katashi said softly. "I know you didn't mean to do it. It's a spar, accidents like this always happen. Plus, I'm proud you lasted as long as you did, along with hitting me with a blow! You wield your father's sword well."

"Thank you Ojisan," I said smiling. "Think you could help me up?"

"Of course."

Reaching out my hand, I grab onto his nearest leg and he pulled me up. Going to straighten myself out I felt a sharp pain in the ribs and doubled back over.

"Awh shit," I started saying through gritted teeth. "I think your blow did a little more than just push me away, Ojisan."

Katashi came to my side after I doubled back over and started poking at my ribs, "It does appear that I may have bruised a few. I apologize deeply for this, Tomiko-chan. Let's go get you fixed up, think you can get onto my back?"

"It's not a problem," I said. "Like you said about me cutting off your leg, it was an accident. And I think I can get onto your back, you'll just have to flatten yourself."

Katashi lowered himself onto the ground and after shuffling next to him, I rolled onto the top of his back.

"Whelp, let's get this show on the road!" I said while pointing my sword in the direction of home.

"Hohoho…"

 ** _TLA_**

With Katashi walking slowly back as to not upset my ribs, we were enjoying a comfortable silence until…

"TOOOMIKOOOOOO-CHAAAANNNNN!"

"Oh no…"

"Hohoho…"

"TOOOMIIKOOO…-chan? Hey what are you doing riding on Katashi-sama," Kenta asked. "I thought you'd be out training, but here you are taking a stroll through the woods!"

' _Why you little…if I could move I'd wring your spidery little neck!'_

"Hohoho," Katashi was chuckling. "Tomiko-chan here is just hurt from our spar from earlier."

Kenta's eyes were bulging from his head. "You sparred with Katashi-sama and didn't die?"

"Well obviously," I grumbled. "Cut off one of his legs too! Fufufu…"

Kenta looked at Katashi's swinging limb. "Holy crap," he exclaimed. "If Tomiko-chan could nick you like that, I think I could take you on Katashi-sama! Huehuehue!"

"Now now Kenta-chan," Katashi started with a hint of playfulness to his voice. "Don't get too ahead of yourself!"

"Hey old man!" Sama was out of the conversation by now… "One of these days I'm going to be leading the spiders! Then everyone will have to stop calling me chan!"

"Hohoho," Katashi chuckled. "You'll have to stop being so small and cute first!"

"I resent that! I'll be as big as my dad one day you know!"

"Yes, yes, yes Kenta- _chan_ , I'll still be calling you -chan then as well! Hohoho…"

"Hey, hey, hey Ojisan," I said. "If you keep all this chuckling up I think I'm going to get sick."

"Hohoho…" ' _Not helping.'_ "My apologies Tomiko-chan. But think, if you were to get sick, that could extend your departure even further!"

"Wait," Kenta said with a tinge of confusion to his tone. "Departure? Are you going to be going somewhere Miko-chan?"

"Yeah," I said sighing. "Jiji thinks it'd be a good idea if I were to live in a shinobi village to help with my…social life. Katashi-ojisan agrees with him, so I'm going to give it a try."

"Buuuuuuuuuuut," Kenta began whining. "How am I supposed to play with my cute little Miko-chan if she's not here!?"

I puffed my cheeks out. "You know, considering Daichi-sama-jiji allowed me to sign the Spider Summoning Contract I could always summon you. But if you're going to be like thaaat~"

"Wait, wait, wait" Kenta was sputtering. "Father let you sign the contract?" I nodded. "Sweet! Summon me as your Alpha! Then I'd be awesome! Huehuehue…"

"I can't choose who I summon as my alpha," I said rolling my eyes. "Besides, he said I can't officially summon my alpha until I'm older."

"Well that's lame!" He said. "How am I supposed to be awesome if I'm not your Alpha?"

' _Is that all you really care about, Kenta-nii? Psh…'_

"Well if all you care about is being awesome," I began. "Then I don't think I'd want you as my Alpha."

I stuck my tongue out at him and he wiggled his fangs at me.

 ** _TLA_**

After discovering that the blow might have bruised one of my lungs, and that a few of my ribs were fractured, I had to rest and not over exert myself for six weeks. As if I was going to let that happen. Many times, I would sneak out to my little field in order to 'lightly' train, only to be found by Katashi-ojisan, Kenta-nii, or Ayaka-nee. Whenever they would find me, I'd get a good ear full all the way back to home. Not pleasant.

But as my lung and ribs were finally fully healed, it was time to get going. Though before leaving, there was one final place I had to stop by.

Walking into the clan shrine, I kneeled once more in front of the scroll and lit the incense before speaking. "I would have dropped by sooner, but I had a bruised lung along with a few fractured ribs courtesy of Katashi-ojisan. If you were alive you'd probably be like, 'A Spar with Katashi? No way!' But yeah, he said I did better than he expected. I did end up cutting of one of his legs with your sword, father, and thankfully he said it would grow back in time. He said you guys would be proud of me for how far I've come; it made me happy. I'll actually be leaving Kumonosu Valley very soon. Daichi-sama-jiji thinks it would be good for me if I were to live in a shinobi village and Katashi-ojisan agreed with him. At first, I was a little sketchy about it. I still don' think it will help me that much. But, the more I think about I realize it might be nice to meet some new people. Perhaps I could teach a bunch of people about our Creed! That would be great, wouldn't it? I could make a bunch of friends and we could all grow and become strong together. I could even meet a boy, but that wouldn't be until I'm older of course!"

I blushed.

"Oh, and guess what! I got to sign the Spider Summoning Contract not too long ago. Jiji told me I'm not allowed to officially get my Alpha until I'm older, though. He said that it was for my safety because he doesn't know if I can handle it, being the youngest person to ever sign. I'll show him how strong I've become though! The first chance I get and I'll be summoning my Alpha! Fufufu!"

I stood back up.

"I suppose I should get going. Jiji, Katashi-ojisan, Kenta-nii, Ayaka-nee, and a few others are waiting to say goodbye, and you know how I am! I don't like to keep others waiting too long. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, I can come back again and visit. I'll want to tell you about my journeys, friends, and how strong I'll have become once I'm an official shinobi! Fufufu! Just you guys wait, I'll become the strongest member in clan history!"

 ** _TLA_**

"So, this is it, huh?"

"Yep. It would have been sooner, but you know, Ojisan had to stall that."

"Hohoho…"

"I still can't believe that you're leaving me!" Kenta was saying indignantly. "What am I going to do with myself?"

"I dunno," I said. "Actually do something with your life? Fufufu…"

"I resent that!"

"My, my Kenta-chan," Ayaka said. "You're becoming as easy to pick on as Tomiko-chan!"

"Hey! When I'm the strongest shinobi (leader of the spiders) in history, you'll be thinking twice about that!" We both said at the same time.

Everyone started laughing as I puffed my cheeks out.

"Well now that the fun is over," Daichi was saying. "I believe it's about time to say our goodbyes. I would like Tomiko-chan to start her travels before it gets dark."

"Jiji! I'm not some little girl!"

"Says the girl who is only eight."

"I resent that!"

"Hey, that's my line!"

"Fufufu…"

 **Author's Notes:**

[04/04/18] After reading this chapter again, I feel like I should go through them all and tidy things up. Small things can be easily missed when glancing at your own work.

But here is the second chapter! I hope you relatively enjoyed it? Again, the next chapter will be posted the next time I feel like writing it.

Until next time!


	3. Travels and Troubles

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:3 Travels and Troubles

 _Journal Update One:_

 _So far it's been a month, and I've finally reached the border of the Land of Woods. I may or may not have gotten lost a few times, but I will not let any of the spiders know of this. I am thinking of spending a month or two of traveling before heading to the Five Great Shinobi Nations, seriously who names themselves that? It's not like there aren't any other great possible nations. Bunch of big heads I tell you what._

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 _Journal Update Three:_

 _Well three months have gone by, and I think it's about time I started heading towards the "Five Big Headed Nations". I think I am in the Land of Vegetables but I'm not sure. Plus, Land of Vegetables? I don't understand people and their names. I just hope I don't get lost again…_

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 _Journal Update Seven:_

 _I have finally situated myself! Again, I may or may not have gotten lost…but I am finally on my way to "Big Head Land". I am currently in the Land of Honey waiting for passage to the Land of Water; though I won't stay there long because of…you know…Hopefully I will be able to find another vessel heading towards the main land once I get there._

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 _Journal Update Ten:_

 _It took longer than I wanted it to, to get out of the Land of Water. Stupid civil war. Though I did meet a group of pretty nice rebels, I helped them out with a short mission. We attacked some stronghold that the Mizukage was using as a supply trough; I fought along with a woman who could use a cool kekkei genkai that involved lava. She asked if I wanted to stay with them, but I told her about my ties with the Land of Water and they helped me get out of the country. I am currently in…wait for it…The Land of NOODLES. I guess this name makes more sense though…considering they make a lot of noodles here. But still…noodles._

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 _Journal Update Twelve:_

 _Well this marks the twelfth month, I might have forgotten about my birthday somewhere, that I've been away from Kumonosu Valley. My journey so far has been a mix between confusion, travels, and multiple cases of getting lost, but I have continued to train every day! Even to the annoyance of the people while traveling by boat. Can't let my skills go to waste, can I?_

 _Currently I am in the Land of Fire, looking to get into Wave Country. Many rumors have been going around that some sketchy activities have been going on within the country. Apparently, some corporation is secretly attempting to take over the country to monopolize the shipping routes, and if that were to happen, the country could go under. I don't know if Tazuna and his family still reside in Wave, but I'm checking just to make sure they're all right._

 _Hopefully when I get there, everything will be._

 _This will probably be my last log for the time being._

 ** _TLA_**

"Hi, are you the one looking to get to Wave?" A man asked.

I nodded. "Yes, I'm looking to visit a few friends who live over there."

"All right," he said. "Not many people have wanted to go over recently; most have wanted to get out because of the rumors that have been going around. Don't blame 'em really."

"Yes, I have heard about these rumors. They are why I'm making sure the people I know are all right." I said.

"That's pretty thoughtful for a kid your age. Are you sure you'll be all right over there by yourself?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine." I said smiling.

"Well if you're sure then go ahead and hop on!" He held out his hand, "I'm Misho by the way. Glad to have you aboard."

I shook his hand. "Thank you for your assistance Misho-san, I'm Tomiko."

"No need to be so formal, kid. It'll be a bit before we reach the shore, but we'll get there eventually."

Getting onto Misho's boat, we began making the trip to Wave. Another small boat passed us along the way; it looked to have a small family on board.

"It seems you weren't kidding when you said people were leaving." I whispered.

"Yes," he started. "That was one boat of many that have crossed in the last few weeks. But we're almost there, so we should be seeing the shoreline soon."

Shortly after he said that, the shoreline came into view. Multiple tunnel like entrances were built in order to prevent the nearby vegetation from blocking the waterway into the village. After we passed through the tunnels he dropped me off at nearby dock.

"You know where you're going from here, right kid?" He asked.

"Yes, I'll be able to find them from here." I said. "Thank you again, Misho."

"No problem, kid! Be safe." And with that, he left.

' _Now to ask someone where Tazuna lives. But, where are all of the people?"_

 ** _TLA_**

After a short search, I discovered that most of the people living in the village were gathered towards the center of the village. Putting my hood up, I decided to go and investigate.

At the village center, there was a large group of what appeared to be samurai, bandits, and other various thugs gathered around a platform. On the platform, a man was tied onto a wooden cross. He was flanked by a short man wearing a suit and two other samurai. The villagers appeared to be behind a temporary fence, preventing them from getting to the platform.

"Excuse me," I started to ask random people within the crowd. "What is going on here? Who are the people on the platform?"

A man turned to answer my question. "The man in the suit is named Gatō, the two samurai with him are named Zōri and Waraji, they're his personal bodyguards, and the one tied up is named Kaiza. Gatō's trying to take over the country for the trading routes, and Kaiza was trying to get a group together to oppose him. Earlier today, the men you see came and ordered everyone to head to the village center to see what happens to people who oppose Gatō. Considering the situation, something very bad is going to happen."

' _This isn't a very good situation at all. I have to help Kaiza!'_

Thanking the man for his information, I left the crowd and circled the gathering in order to get to the buildings surrounding the platform. Perching myself on the buildings behind it, I began to wait for an opportunity to arise while Gatō began to speak.

"Listen up!" He started shouting. "This man has been caught conducting terrorist activities against Gatō Corporation! His actions and devious plans have been disrupting the peace of this country for far too long! For his punishment, it has been decided that he shall be put to death! I just hope that in the future, something like this never happens again." At the end of his little speech, he gave the crowd a sadistic smile and turned to speak to Kaiza. Activating my dōjutsu, I honed in on Gatō to hear what he was saying to Kaiza.

"Kaiza," he whispered with the same sadistic smile. "You have gone on and on, telling the people that they should protect the things that are precious to them, putting an emphasis on doing it with 'these two arms'. Well, let's see how far that goes for you when you don't have any arms at all!"

Gatō then turned to his two guards, "Cut off his arms!"

' _Guess it looks like I won't get an easy in and out.'_

Jumping down towards the spot between Zōri and Waraji, I threw my arms out and extended both hidden blades into their jugulars just before they brought their swords down on Kaiza's arms, landing between them and dragging their corpses down with me. Before anyone could react, I unsheathed my sword and cut away Kaiza's restraints, bringing him down and supporting him on my back. After Gatō did his best impersonation of a fish out of water, I kicked him off the platform. Pulling out a few smoke bombs, I threw them into the crowd of hired thugs in order to make my escape. Aiming my right gauntlet towards the nearest building, I fired the grappling hook that pulled us up to the roof. After securing Kaiza into a comfortable position, I leapt from the rooftops and went running into the trees.

In the distance I could hear Gatō yelling, "What are you all doing just standing there!? Someone go after that _CHILD!_ "

 ** _TLA_**

After a few minutes of running through the woods, Kaiza began to stir. "Hmm? Wh-what's going on? Who are you?"

"Hello Kaiza-san," I responded kindly. "My name is Tomiko. I stumbled upon your situation and decided to help."

"But there were all of those thugs, how could you possibly have done that without getting hurt?"

I smiled. "Well let's just say I was born for this sort of thing."

He chuckled, "Well all right. That's simple enough."

"Unfortunately," I said. "I am not able to move very fast while supporting you. So, I'm afraid some of them will start catching up soon. Will you be all right if I stick you up into a tree somewhere?"

He blinked. "Well I suppose that'll be all right. I would rather assist you, but in my condition, I would probably just get in your way. Please, do not do anything to hurt yourself."

Quickly pulling out a few ropes, I secured him to a large branch in a nearby tree. "All right," I said. "That should do it. I'll be back for you once I handle the guys who came after us. I'll also try not to hurt myself too much."

Jumping onto the ground, I ran back towards the village heading into a nearby clearing.

"Well shit, this is a lot more than just a few of you." ' _There has to be close to over a hundred guys here, how many thugs did Gatō send after me? Pompous bastard!'_

"You listen here now little girl!" One of the many thugs shouted. My left eye just twitched. "You tell us where Kaiza is, and maybe we'll kill you quickly." That got many of the men to grunt and shout in approval.

"I'm sorry," I said unsheathing my sword and getting into my fighting stance, though deciding to keep the hidden blade concealed in the gauntlet. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You think some little girl with some cute little blade can take on all of us!" Another one of the thugs shouted.

"I think that's just what this little girl is going to do." I said. "Now are you guys going to come at me, or am I going to go through puberty first?"

That little tease got the exact reaction I wanted. The last man who shouted charged at me in an angry burst and took a swing with his sword at my head. Simply blocking the blow with my left gauntlet, I pivoted on my left heel and slashed my sword across his torso. After a brief look of shock, he collapsed to the ground.

' _One down.'_ "Who's next?" I asked smiling.

Three men decided to come next. The first one to reach me was as careless as the first thug, simply just swinging his sword in hopes of securing a blow. I just ducked below his sloppy swing and drove my sword through his chest. _'Two down.'_ The remaining two ran towards me at the same time, one attacking from behind and the other from the front. Blocking a swing from behind with my sword, I threw a punch at the man in front of me. He smiled, catching my fist before it hit his stomach. Smiling back at him I extended the hidden blade into his gut. The sudden burst of pain caused him to loosen his grip on my hand, allowing me to drag the blade through the rest of his stomach. ' _Three down.'_ Catching the other man before he could react, I kicked my right foot back into his left kneecap making him collapse to the ground. Before he could get back to his feet, I drove my sword through his skull. _'Four down.'_

What happened next could be considered true chaos. The men began to charge at me in large waves, many of them wielding swords, sickles, and other various weapons.

' _Well, shit. This is going to become tiring.'_

Deciding to take the offense to them, I charged at the incoming wave. Sliding under the first man I came into contact with, I slashed my sword along his left thigh, knowing he'd bleed out in minutes. _'Five down.'_ Leaping back to my feet, I parried the heavy swing of someone's sword, using the momentum of the parry to make it impale one of the men closer to me. _'Six down.'_ Continuing with the motion I spun on my right heel and swept my left leg under the previous attacker's feet, knocking him to the ground. Going in for the kill, I leapt at him with the hidden blade as he brought his sword up in a sweeping motion to block and parry it. Just before our blades made contact, I sheathed the hidden blade, causing his sword to go right by my hand. Just as my first was making contact with his jaw, I re-extended the blade, sliding it into his neck with the blow. _'Seven down.'_

Seeing as I was about to be overwhelmed, I quickly sheathed my sword and pulled out multiple smoke bombs, throwing them in different directions.

"Īgurubijon!" I shouted, activating my dōjutsu. Seeing the startled red glowing masses around me, I went on the attack. _'Ten down…fifteen…twenty …thirty.'_ The smoke around me began to dissolve, showing that the remaining men were standing wearily to the side. But the length of the fight was starting to tax my body, and I could feel exhaustion creeping its way through. ' _Stupid little girl stamina! I can go longer than this!'_

After a short breather, the next wave came.

Before I could mentally register what was happening, fifty bodies laid sprawled out across the ground around me. Breathing heavily, I began glaring at the remaining men. Their faces showed mixed signs of anger, fear, disbelief, and somehow…determination. _'Why aren't they running away by now? I've literally torn through fifty of them without receiving a scratch in return. How much is that pompous bastard paying these guys?'_

"All right men," One of the remaining guys shouted. "She's exhausted and can't go on for much longer! This is our chance!" His words seemed to be enough to wash away the fear in the remaining men. After all, I am just some little girl.

' _I don't know how much longer I can push my body. Come on Tomiko! Think!'_ Then an idea flashed into my head. _'Brilliant! But Daichi-jiji said I should wait until I'm older…Well technically I am older…But what if I try and the strain kills me? But then again, I could be able to do it. If I could and decide not to, my body could give out and I'd still end up dead. Gah! Decisions, decisions, decisions. Damn it! You know what? I'm just going to go for it. Sorry Jiji! But technically I am older!'_

Piercing my right thumb, I flew through the required hand signs and slammed my hand on the ground. "Summoning Jutsu: Call of the Alpha!"

Just before the swarm of men reached me, a giant cloud of smoke poofed into existence and I suddenly found myself high in the sky.

"What in the world!" Shouted a booming voice that I recognized.

"Oh, h-hey there Jiji." I said breathlessly. I could automatically feel the effects of the Summoning Jutsu on my body. But it's not like I could have foreseen Daichi being my Alpha Summons. "Think…think you could take care of…the guys on the ground?"

"They're already dead," he said. "They were too close when you summoned me."

"Oh," I chuckled. "That's…that's g-great."

"Tomiko-chan, I can tell you're dangerously close to running out of chakra. What in the world do you think you were doing summoning me? There was no way you were ready for that!"

"Sorry Jiji, I didn't know I would summon you. I used the Alpha Summoning Technique."

' _She summoned ME through the Alpha Summons? No wonder she hasn't passed out from chakra exhaustion. But still, I haven't been an Alpha Summon since Hideyoshi…Hmm, Tomiko you continue to amaze me my dear.'_

"Tomiko-chan," he said. "You are rather lucky that the Alpha Summoning Technique allows you to use less chakra than the normal Summoning Technique. I'm afraid if that wasn't the case, the Asashinkurīdo would truly be extinct."

"Woah Jiji," I said. "Low blow. Low. Blow."

"Sorry Tomiko-chan. I was just letting you know the seriousness of our current predicament."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know." I said rolling my eyes. "But it worked, and now you're my Alpha Summons! Do you know how great that makes me? Fufufu…"

Daichi sighed. "Yes, and the fact that you're still alive is a relief."

"You're so sentimental," I said. "But do you think you could do me a favor?"

"What would you like?" He asked.

 ** _TLA_**

"I suppose I could do that. But be warned, he will probably react a lot differently than I did. Are you okay with that?"

"I know he'll probably be upset, but I can handle it. Go ahead and summon him."

"He should be able to stay for a little while after I'm gone, so be sure to make haste."

"I will, Jiji. I promise."

"Good, now let me call for him." Daichi made several clicking like noises and then slammed one of his legs on the ground. Moments later, Katashi appeared before me in a puff of smoke.

"What can I do—"He paused, "Well this is certainly the first time I've been summoned on top of your head. And what a surprise to see you here as well Tomiko-chan. What is going on?"

I chuckled nervously as Daichi spoke. "Well you see, our little Tomiko-chan here got into a small confrontation and was forced to use the Alpha Summoning Technique."

Katashi's eyes visibly widened as he took in the condition I was in. "What were you thinking, Tomiko? If it weren't for that specific technique requiring less chakra than usual, you could be dead! Not even considering the fact that somehow Daichi-sama was called forth as your summon!"

I puffed out my cheeks. "I know, I know! Daichi-sama-jiji already told me about it." I stuck my tongue out at him. "Besides, if I didn't use it I would have been in trouble anyways!"

Katashi sighed, "I'll allow this small incident to slide under the rug, considering you're still alive. But the next time you do something so ridiculous, there will be repercussions. I will not allow the Asashinkurīdo clan to be wiped out just because you weren't thinking ahead. Do you understand that, Tomiko-chan?"

For the first time I could see disappointment in the eyes of Katashi. "I understand, Ojisan."

"Good," he said. "Now to the matter at hand, what is it you need of me Daichi-sama?"

"As you can see, the technique took quite the toll on Tomiko-chan and she believes herself unable to walk." I gave out a nervous chuckle and Daichi and Katashi just sighed. "I summoned you at the request of Tomiko-chan, to assist her in the retrieval and return of a man she recently saved. I used enough of my own chakra to allow you to exist here for a short amount of time, even after I return home."

"As you wish," Katashi said, and then smiled with an evil glint to his eye. "Come on Tomiko-chan, let's get going before you start drooling on yourself."

"I resent that!"

 ** _TLA_**

"He should be right over…there!" I shouted. "Kaiza-san! Kaiza-san!...Oh, maybe he fell asleep? Ojisan, think you could go up that tree over there?"

"Yes, yes." He replied.

Reaching the branch that Kaiza was tied on, we discovered that he was indeed asleep.

"Oi! Kaiza-san!" Nothing. "Ojisan, think you could wake him up?"

"How would you suggest that I do that?" He asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Poke him in the face, shake him a little bit, stick your leg in his nose…something like that, fufufu."

Katashi sighed but began shaking him a little bit. Once Kaiza began to stir, I decided not to say anything, he was going to get the surprise of a lifetime once he woke up.

' _This is going to be great!'_

"Mm…w-what?" He said rubbing his eyes. "Is everything over?" He then opened his eyes. Kaiza blinked. Then blinked once more, and then abruptly started freaking out. "W-w-w-woah! Stay back! S-stay back!" He started flailing his arms, but because he was tied up he couldn't move too much. "Please don't eat me! I have much more to do in life!"

"I'm not going to eat you."

A pause.

"IT CAN TALK!" And he slumped.

"Fufufu…out like a light."

"Tomiko-chan, that wasn't very kind of you."

"I know Ojisan, I just couldn't resist." I said. "But see, he wasn't out for that long, he's beginning to stir again."

"What…what happened?"

"Sorry Kaiza-san, I was very mean to you just then." I said smiling.

"You…" He then looked at Katashi. "Giant spider…It's not going to eat me?"

"I already said I'm not going to eat you," Katashi said. "And I'm not an 'it', I'm a 'he'. My name is Katashi."

"O-okay…Katashi." Kaiza said. "So what's going on? Why is Tomiko riding on your back?"

"Fufufu…" I chuckled. "Katashi-ojisan is just here to help me! I may or may not have tired myself out too much to walk! Fufufu!"

"Ojisan?" Kaiza asked quizzically.

"Oh, right. That's probably weird to you." I said. "I'm technically an orphan but technically not an orphan at the same time. You see, I once had a clan but then they were all killed except for me and my mother. After my mother passed from a sudden illness I started living with Ojisan and the other spider kin. They're our clan summons, so they're sort of like another family to me."

"I…see." Kaiza said. "I'm glad you had somewhere to go once your family passed."

I smiled. "Yeah, I am pretty lucky that I had them. But enough small talk! Time to get you home!"

After releasing Kaiza from his bonds, Katashi assisted him onto his back and we made our way back onto the ground.

"So Kaiza-san," Katashi said. "Where to from here?"

"We're actually really close," he said. He then pointed in the opposite direction of the village. "My family's home is just over this way."

"Awesome!" I shouted. "Didn't even have a clue where I was going but still went the right way! Fufufu!"

Kaiza laughed. "I do suppose that is pretty good," he said. "But I would like to thank you again for rescuing me. And you as well Katashi-san, for assisting her."

I blushed. "It was no problem at all! I would be going against my Creed if I didn't assist you."

"Your Creed?"

I nodded. "It was something that my clan adopted during the Second Shinobi World War."

"I see," he said. "What exactly is this Creed based upon?"

From his tone of voice, I could tell that he was genuinely interested and wasn't being judgmental about it. His sincerity made me smile. "The Creed itself is centered on three basic tenets." I said sagely. "The first is to keep our blades away from the blood of the innocent, such as you; the second is to search for peace in all things, which practically explains itself; and the final tenet is to never betray your comrades, something I think everyone should believe. We fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, defending them from the people who abuse their powers. That is our Creed"

"Well that all sounds very noble of your clan." Kaiza said smiling.

We all walked in comfortable silence for a while until the shape of a house came into view.

"Tomiko-chan," Katashi said. "The chakra Daichi-sama gave me is beginning to run thin, I will not be able to assist you for much longer."

"That is all right," Kaiza said. "I feel as though I can walk now, please let me assist her from now on Katashi-san. It is the least I could do for her."

"Are you okay with this Tomiko-chan?" I nodded, to which Katashi lowered himself to the ground allowing Kaiza to get onto his feet. Kaiza was shaky at first, but was soon able to gain his balance. Gently picking me up, he placed me onto his back and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Thank you for everything, Ojisan." I said smiling. "I hope to see you again soon!"

"It was my please, dear." He said. "Now take care, and be sure not to strain yourself too much." He gave us his best spidery smile and then poofed out of existence.

"All right kiddo," Kaiza said. "Let's get you inside."

 ** _TLA_**

Approaching the house, a loud childish voice could be heard from the outside.

"You should have seen it mom!" A child's voice said excitedly. "Dad was in trouble and all of a sudden this girl comes jumping onto the platform out of nowhere! 'BAM, BAM' and Gatō's personal guards were down for the count! Then she took dad away, but not before kicking Gatō off the platform! It was soooo cool!"

"Worried about your old man, huh?" Kaiza said as we walked through the door.

"Dad! You're back!" The child said excitedly as he ran into his father. "Mom! Dad's back! And he brought the one who saved him!" He then went running upstairs, continuously yelling for his mother to come down.

Kaiza then walked into the living room and gently placed me onto a couch.

"That kid sure is full of energy." I said.

I looked over to see Kaiza smiling. "He always seems to be," Kaiza said. "But Inari is a good boy. I'm proud to be his father."

"Inari?" I questioned. _'Is that the same kid? But Kaiza looks nothing like the man who was with Tsunami and Tazuna when we found them…'_

"Inari is my step son, but my son nonetheless." He smiled. "I met his mother after—"

Before he could finish, a woman's body came slamming into him, almost knocking him over. "Kaiza!" She shouted. "I was so worried! I thought I was going to lose you!"

Kaiza pulled her into a tight hug before kissing her passionately. _'Well this is awkward…'_ "I'm sorry, I was acting recklessly and ended up hurting you in the process," he said. "But now I'm here, and for that we should be thankful to the child who saved me."

I puffed my cheeks out. "I'm not a child!"

"Child?" The woman asked turning towards me.

Our eyes met and her hands shot up to her lips.

"Tomiko-chan?"

 ** _TLA_**

Hours passed and I found myself sitting at a table with Kaiza and his family. The hours leading up to dinner were filled with many different discussions, and I learned many things.

Inari's father passed shortly after his birth.

Inari almost drowned but was saved by Kaiza.

Inari introduced Kaiza to Tsunami, and they married shortly afterwards.

Inari was becoming frighteningly close to worshipping the ground I walked on.

"You're so cool, Tomiko-nee-chan!" Inari said with stars in his eyes.

"Fufufu…" I chucked nervously. "I—Er, thank you?"

"Come now, Inari-kun," Tsunami said walking into the room with a pot of food. "Stop making Tomiko-chan feel so uncomfortable."

Inari deflated the second Tsunami walked in. "Yes mom," he said. But he still shot starry eyes my way whenever Tsunami wasn't looking.

"Hahaha," Tazuna laughed, slamming his mug onto the table. During my time spent here I also discovered that Tazuna was…well, quite the drinker. "Tsunami, my dear! Let the poor boy idolize the girl! It's not every day you get to eat dinner with a hero!"

I blushed. "Tazuna-san, there's no need to address me as such. I was just doing what was right."

"Nonsense," he said smiling. "Not only did you save us all those years ago, but you show up once more and save us again! Not a hero my a—"

Before he could finish that sentence, Tsunami got him in the head with a pan. "Watch your words around Inari!"

"Mom," Inari said tilting his head. "Tomiko-nee-chan saved you and gramps before?"

Tsunami nodded. "It was while I was pregnant with you. We were being attacked by bandits when she and her mother showed up. They quickly got rid of them before anyone realized what was happening. In fact, Tomiko-chan was the one who suggested naming you Inari."

The room then grew eerily quiet. Inari slowly turned his head towards me, his eyes glazing over with a dreamy look.

' _Oh Tsunami, what have you done?'_

"TOMIKO-NEE-CHAN NAMED ME!?" Inari's sudden outburst had everyone jumping out of their chairs. "That's so cool! I'm so cool! Tomiko-nee-sama is so cool!"

"Tomiko…?"

"Sama?" I asked.

Inari was shaking his head so fast it looked like it was going to fall off his shoulders. "Yeah, Tomiko-nee-sama!" He shouted. "You saved my family before I was even born! Then you show up again and save my dad! You're awesome! I wanna be just like you when I grow up!"

"I thought you wanted to be like me when you grew up!" Kaiza cried jokingly.

"You've been one-upped, dad!"

Kaiza amusingly fell out of his chair.

 ** _TLA_**

A week went by and I finally recuperated from my 'slight' case of chakra exhaustion. Walking towards the village center, Kaiza and a few of his friends were following me.

"Are you sure about this?" One of Kaiza's friends questioned.

"Yeah, kid." Another one said. "We know you helped Kaiza and all, but going after Gatō himself? We don't even know where the hole they slither back into is!"

"At least allow us to assist you, Tomiko-chan." Kaiza said. "We simply cannot allow you to do something like this yourself, you could get hurt!"

Arriving at my destination, I halted my movements and spun around to look at Kaiza and his friends. "No," I said shooting them the most serious glare I could give as a nine-year old. "I appreciate your offer, but you would all just get in my way. My clan specialized in this kind of work, and I don't plan on letting them down. And Kaiza, I would get hurt? I took out fifty of Gatō's men by myself. It's not like I plan on barging into the place and letting everyone know I'm there. No. I'm going to be sneaking in there to clean their clock, and that will be that."

"But Tomiko-chan…" Kaiza said pleadingly.

"Kaiza," I said looking at him with a gentler eye. "I really do appreciate all that you, Tsunami, Tazuna, and Inari-kun have done for me. But please, let me do this myself."

Kaiza sighed in defeat. "All right," he said. "But please, be careful."

I smiled. "Thank you, Kaiza."

After Kaiza and his friends gave me my space, I closed my eyes to concentrate. It was time to get to work.

 **Author's Notes:**

[04/04/18] After reading through this chapter, it doesn't seem so bad. I actually felt a little excited while reading through and envisioning some of the scenes.

So, there's that. I was going to continue it until the next scene, and possibly to the end of this Wave action. But it just started pulling and pulling, and I didn't like the direction it was going. I know this will bring changes to the future, but I have some things planned out. Others, well, winging it can work. [04/04/18] A lot of winging it actually. I'm still working on the general idea of fight scenes, so I hope you somewhat enjoyed the chapter.

Until next time!


	4. The End of a Tyrant

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:4 The End of a Tyrant

The sun is currently setting, and I find myself perched in a tree outside of a large building. After investigating the village center, a trail highlighted with Gatō's stench led me here. For the last couple of hours I have spent my time using the Īgurubijon to memorize the movements of the guards inside and outside of the building.

There are three floors and a basement, with the outside of the building being lightly protected compared to the inside. Two groups, each with two men, circled the perimeter. Their paths cross whenever they get to the east or west side, leaving them separated at the northern and southern sides of the structure. The south end is closest to the tree line, allowing it to be the easiest place to ambush one of the perimeter guard units. The entrance is being guarded by only one man. But he seems to be pretty large, possibly to scare off anyone who would be intimidated by him…Sucks for that guy.

The basement has constant activity. Two guards are posted at the bottom of the stairs, with two other men free roaming the floor. From what I can see, there are cells with possible captives, but I am currently unsure because I can only see the red pigment of the guards and golden pigment of Gatō. To insure the safety of any civilians in the building, I will be going to the basement first after clearing the guards from the outside and first floor.

The first floor was slightly more guarded than the basement. One guard was directly on the inside of the entrance, with two guards patrolling the floor and two more stationed at different areas.

The second floor had to be dedicated strictly to the guard's sleeping courters. Multiple guards appeared to be sleeping, with a couple of them patrolling outside of the rooms.

The third floor is where Gatō is located. Because of this, the floor is heavily guarded. Two guards are posted outside the door where his sleeping quarters are, three guards appeared to be sitting around a table…playing cards perhaps?...and three separate guards were roaming the floors.

' _This is going to be so troublesome…After darkness falls it'll be time to strike.'_

* * *

Once the sun vanished, I moved closer to the edge of the tree line.

While waiting for one of the guard units to come by, I began prepping one of the Spider Clan's specialized poison darts. The dart itself is solidified venom from one of the branches of widow spiders. The venom for this dart is different from other venoms, because its poison carries multiple parasites in it rather than the deadly or paralytic agents of other poisons. I named it the Uragirimono Dāto, or Turncoat Dart, because the parasites inside the venom travel through the blood stream very quickly in order to reach and affect the brain. Once they arrive at the brain they can pretty much takeover, and when they do that the person who was shot with the dart becomes very aggressive and attacks anything in sight. The parasites only last about thirty seconds after the brain is reached, but they do enough damage to it that after they die their host dies as well, making it pretty useful to use on people in small or large groups to create a little chaos.

In order to work with the widow spider's venom, I had to go under very severe but controlled immunization conditioning. So if anything went wrong with any of their venoms, it wouldn't affect me.

After waiting for thirty-or-so seconds, the guard unit from the eastern side came around the corner. Once they reached about half way I shot the bigger of the two men with the dart. After hitting him he flinched and went reaching up for his neck, causing the other guy to stop and look at him.

"Oi, what are ye doin' Hito?" The guy asked walking up to the man named Hito.

Hito then pulled out his sword and started looking around in strange bewilderment. The other man seemed to have taken an angry look upon his face.

"What the hell do you think yer doin', ye dumb giant? There ain't no one out here. Put yer damn sword away and let's go. Gatō will be pissed if he thinks we're slackin', and I won't hold anythin' back if we get pulled in fer questionin'."

Hito then stopped turning in circles and zeroed in on the other guy. Before he even got the chance to react, Hito started swinging his sword wildly. One blow even slashed along his neck, preventing him from yelling out due to the sudden attack. Hito continued his enraged swinging even after the other guy collapsed, and after another fifteen seconds collapsed as well.

' _Well that was interesting. I didn't know he would get that aggressive, maybe he didn't like the other guy? Oh well…"_

Firing my grappling hook, it pulled me from the branch I was on, to the roof of the building. On the western side, the two remaining perimeter guards were cautiously walking towards the southern end; probably because the other two never appeared.

One was walking a little bit behind the other and both of them had their weapons out. Drawing my sword I jumped over the edge, landing on the man in the back while simultaneously driving the sword through his skull. The other guy turned around with a shocked expression on his face. I couldn't tell if it was because the guy behind him was suddenly dead, or due to the fact that my sword was already plunged hilt deep through his chest. Oh well.

After flicking the blood off, I sheathed my sword and made my way back onto the roof, this time heading towards the north side and entrance.

The guard at the front entrance almost had me laughing. He was actually leaning up against the door and sleeping on duty.

Rolling my eyes, I quickly made my way onto the ground and just stared at him until an idea popped into my head.

Smiling with no good intent, I wound up my fist and punched him straight in the groin.

Giving out a loud gasp, he clutched his now aching jewels and fell to his knees. After releasing the contents of his stomach, he looked up to me. His face showed signs of shock, pain, and anger.

"You know," I said looking him straight in the eyes. I smiled, "You really shouldn't nap while on guard duty. Bad things could happen."

Before he could respond, I pulled out my sword once more and drove it through his chest.

"Really bad things could happen."

* * *

After dragging the door guard off to the side of the building, it was time to check on the first floor again.

"Īgurubijon," I whispered.

Seeing that the guard on the inside still hasn't moved away from the entrance, I quickly opened the door and left it ajar. After pulling out his weapon he slowly made his way towards me, and as he was making his way over the threshold I quickly pulled his feet out from under him. Once he was on the ground, I stabbed him through the heart with a Hidden Blade and made my way through the door, closing is behind me.

Directly through the door was a small room, possibly a waiting room if anyone were visiting. It had windows on the opposite side of the doorway showing the main floor and another door that was open to the other side.

As I was making my way into the main room, I had to quickly backtrack because one of the guards suddenly headed for the waiting area. To catch his attention, I gave out a low whistle just as he was walking by the door, making him stop in his tracks and turn back. Once his made it to the door he slightly hesitated, but eventually made his way into the small room. After he was turned from me, I ran up behind him and jumped onto his back, stabbing a Hidden Blade into his neck and knocking him over.

After leaving the front room, I made my way to the back of the main room, where one of the stationary guards was located. While approaching him, I realized that this guard was also asleep on the job.

' _Stupid…lazy…Not even making this difficult.'_

Quietly making my way towards him, I found a large box and placed it in front of the man. Once in place I extended my Hidden Blade and quickly slashed it across his neck. His eyes flew open and landed on me as he reached for his wound. Smiling at him I grabbed his shirt and pulled him into the box, and after he stopped his struggles, sealed him inside.

The last two guards were currently in a separate room adjacent from the main floor, but one was currently making his way to the door. Pulling out two kunai, I waited for him to make his exit.

As he was leaving the room, I threw my two kunai. One lodged itself in his temple, and the other was lodged through his neck. Once he collapsed to the floor I withdrew my sword and ran towards his body. Just as the other one made his way out to check on the dead one, I leapt through the air and brought my sword down upon his neck, decapitating him.

Standing back up I sheathed my sword and let out a slow breath, "First floor cleared."

* * *

Heading into the basement was simple enough. The door leading to it was unlocked, so that prevented any difficulties, and the two guards at the bottom of the steps were completely oblivious. Sneaking up behind them and using he stairs for a height advantage, I extended both of my Hidden Blades and brought both of my arms forward in a clapping motion. The blades went into their necks and my hands brought their heads slamming into each other, allowing them to slide into blissful unconsciousness while bleeding out.

At the same time, one of the other guards was passing by at the end of the hall and saw both of the guards collapse. This caused him to yell out for the other guard and charge me.

Meeting him head on, I brought out my sword and charged as well. Ducking below a swing from the right, I twisted behind him on my knees and sliced through both of his hamstrings. Just as I was bringing the sword down on his neck, the other guard came around the corner with a crossbow.

Thinking fast I brought up my right Bracer and went to fire a poison dart at him, but instead, fired off the grappling hook on accident.

When it is fired, the grappling hook travels nearly twenty feet in the blink of an eye and stays disengaged until it comes into contact with an object. So if you wanted to go to the top of a roof, you would aim it to where it would go right by the edge to allow it to open up and then attach itself. Not knowing what would happen if it's fired at a person, I just let it take its course.

The grappling hook pierced right through the guards chest and engaged itself right after it flew out of the other side of his back, attaching to his body. Instead of pulling me forward, it dragged the guard towards me because he wasn't heavy enough, and he landed right at my feet.

"…Holy. Shit…Basement cleared."

* * *

Now that the basement was cleared, I was able to concentrate on the people being held in the cells. Walking up to one, I noticed that only females were held in it. After looking at all of the other ones, I noticed that only females were in ALL of them.

"E-excuse me," came a timid voice.

Hurrying over to the cell the voice came from, I responded with a kind smile. "Hello, my name is Tomiko. I'm here to help."

Everyone looked at me in disbelief, but considering what I just did to all of the guards down here, there was also a slight glimpse of hope.

"I noticed that none of the guards had any sort of key," I said. "Do you know where I could find the one to your cells?"

After asking the question, most of the younger girl's faces took on distant looks, but some of the older ones got a hardened expression and was able to answer me. "You will have to get it from Gatō," one of the women said. "He only comes down here with the key when he requires someone's…services," she finished with disgust.

Realization dawned on me after what she just said.

' _He keeps all of these women and girls down here so he can…some of them are even the same age as me! This is inexcusable!'_

Breaking me from my thoughts, a distinctly broken voice came. "Please," she said. "Make haste. I beg of you! Not too long ago he came down here and took my daughter before heading to bed. She's just around your age, so please, hurry! I can't even begin to think what that monster has already done to her!"

By the end she was already in tears and needed to be supported by the other women.

"I promise you, he will come to justice."

And with that, I broke off into a sprint up the stairs and to the second floor.

* * *

Because the second floor was used as sleeping quarters for the guards, not many of them were awake and few littered the floors.

In normal circumstances, this would be the perfect situation. I would sneak room to room and silently take out anyone, sleeping or conscious. But because of Gatō and the heinous crime of which I'm sure he has already started, I was far less conspicuous.

Running down the hall, I dispatched anyone within sight before even reaching them, throwing kunai at area's that were sure to incapacitate or kill.

As I reached the end of the current corridor I was sprinting through, a group of guards came around the corner.

"Oi," one of them shouted. "Who the hell are you!?"

' _Well great, I don't have time for this shit.'_

Charging into the group, I pulled out my sword and pivoted on my right heel and quickly did a spin, slashing some of them across the chest before they could react.

One of the other guards pulled a sword, and took a somewhat confident stance. "You're pretty quick for a kid," he said. "But I am a samurai, your sword skills will be no match for me. Drop your weapon and maybe I'll take you as a personal slave instead of killing you. We wouldn't want to damage that pretty little face of yours, now would we?"

The look of lust in his eyes was disgusting.

"How dare you call yourself a samurai," I said. "Samurai are honorable people, and by what you just said and who you work for says otherwise!"

My words obviously angered him and he came charging forward. He made a few quick lunges which were easily parried by my sword, but one of his lunges was miscalculated and he messed up on his footing and stumbled a bit. This gave me an easy window to end him.

Moving to left as he stumbled by, I slid my sword over his throat and he collapsed.

"You are pathetic to think of yourself so highly, may Kami have mercy on you in the afterlife."

The other guards were obviously distraught after my easy defeat over the so called 'samurai', making it almost too easy to put down.

After the last guard fell, I sheathed my sword and continued with haste to the third floor.

' _This is taking too much time!'_

* * *

After making it up the set of stairs leading to the third floor, I stopped at an open doorway to investigate.

Inside was the group of men sitting around the table playing poker, but instead of three people there was seven. Reaching into one of my pouches, I pulled out a special smoke bomb. Like the Uragirimono Dāto, this smoke bomb was different. The smoke is laced with another special kind of venom hailing from the widow spiders. The venom makes it so the smoke has severe burning effects, but the smoke only has such effect on living creatures, so the environment doesn't suffer from it. The poison from this venom is quickly absorbed by skin and tissue and spreads quickly at a cellular level, making it dangerous not to just inhale, but to come into contact with as well. On the outside the victim will look like he or she died from severe third degree burns covering the body, but because the venom also attacks at a cellular level, the victim will feel like they are being boiled from the inside; giving them a quick death, but a very excruciating one. Because of the effects, I have named this smoke bomb Jigokuno Tatchi; Hell's Touch.

Throwing it into the room I quickly pulled the door shut so the smoke wouldn't linger into the halls. Even though I am immune to the heavier effects, the smoke will still give me first degree burns over my body, and that happening now would be rather troublesome.

After shutting the door I quickly made my way to the corridor that held Gatō's room. Peering around the corner, I saw that the guard stationed there was annoyed at his current situation. Not wanting to waste any more time, I aimed and fired a normal fast acting poison dart at his neck and he quickly collapsed.

As I got closer to the door, I could tell why the guard was annoyed. From the inside I could hear loud grunting and the creaking of the floorboards, and what the guard could not have heard…muffled crying noises.

Overcoming with anger, I kicked in the door. "GATŌ!" I yelled.

Being flustered from the sudden noise, Gatō fell off of his bed taking the blankets with him, revealing the small, naked, battered and bruised figure of a little girl. Her face was badly bruised and her mouth had been gagged, tear stains were still visible on her face.

What angered me most was the dead and distant look in her eyes.

Moving my eyes from the painful view of the girl, I looked back to Gatō and made my way towards him.

"Gatō." I growled out his name.

"Guards!" He shouted while trying to crawl away from me.

"There is no one left to help you," I said. "And anyone else who could help is sleeping."

I could see the look of fear cross his face before he spoke again. "P-please!" He shouted. "Have mercy on me! I can give you anything you want! Fame! Wealth! Glory! Just name it! Anything you want and it's yours, but please spare me!"

"Can you bring back the lives of everyone you killed?" His face blanched at my question. I pointed at the girl on the bed, "Can you give back the innocence you clearly stole from her!?"

"N-no," he stuttered out. "That is all impossible!"

"Then there is nothing you could ever do for me." I said in a tone that was as cold as ice.

Gatō reached the drawer he was slowly crawling to and reached under it and threw a kunai.

Easily batting it away with one of my Bracer's, I aimed at him and fired a paralysis dart.

"You've poisoned me?"

"No, what I have just shot you with is a fast acting paralysis dart. As you have probably already noticed, your limbs are already immobile."

"You can't do-!" He began to shout but suddenly stopped.

"And as you just noticed, you lost all ability to speak."

Slicing my thumb, I made a few quick hand signs and slammed my hand on the floor. "Summoning Jutsu!"

In a puff of smoke appeared a spider the same size as I am, but on its abdomen were many moving bodies.

"Greetings Tomiko-chan," she said. "How may I be of service?"

"Hello Kotone-sama," I said looking back to Gatō. "I require no big need. I just summoned you because I have provided a small snack for your young."

Kotone's gaze moved to the young girl on the bed, and then to Gatō.

Walking up to Gatō, I crouched next to him and whispered so the girl couldn't hear me. "Kotone-sama is a wolf spider," I said. "And Kotone-sama is special, because she is the female alpha of the wolf spiders and is the only one allowed to breed, which is why you see the little bodies on her abdomen. Where most spiders generally inject their prey with some sort of venom that makes them liquefy on the inside, she comes from a specialized torture branch. You see Gatō, her branch of wolf spiders can actually consume the flesh of its prey, and that's what your purpose is in this predicament."

Standing back up, I allowed Kotone-sama enough room to grab Gatō with her fangs, and we walked towards a closet.

"Once you and your young are done feeding Kotone-sama, go ahead and dispel yourself, I have some things I need to take care of." I then looked back to Gatō's frightened form. "And just think Gatō, you don't even get to scream."

Smiling, I began to shut the closet door. The last thing I saw was the image of Gatō being overwhelmed by Kotone's young.

* * *

After closing the door, I turned back to the girl. Though she hasn't moved from her position, she was now looking at me.

I slowly approached as to not scare her. "Hello," I said. "I'm sorry for what you just saw. But my name is Tomiko, I came to help. I was in the basement earlier and your mother sent me for you." I picked up a blanket and draped it over her. "You don't have to speak or anything, I know you must be in a horrible position right now, and you're probably frightened of me. But would you know where he keeps the key for the cells downstairs?"

Shakily raising her arm, she pointed to a wall that had a large painting of Gatō in a throne. Behind the painting was a large safe.

' _Hmm, the key must be in the safe…but the safe also needs a key. Īgurubijon!'_

Looking around the room, one of the stands next to Gatō's bed gave off a slight glow.

' _Bingo.'_

Opening the drawer to the stand, I reached in and pulled out a small key. Walking back over to the safe, I inserted the key and opened it.

Inside the safe was a couple of suit cases, a scroll, and the key to which was probably for the cell's.

Taking out one of the suitcases, I opened it up and my eyes nearly fell out of my sockets.

' _Look at all this money…Gato won't be needing this anymore. That's for sure.'_

Taking out a scroll, I rolled it out and wrote a few storage seals onto it. After sealing all of the suit cases, I grabbed the key and the scroll.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I opened it to see why it would be in the safe.

' _Well this is interesting…Gatō won't be needing this anymore either.'_

Smiling, I turned back to the girl and showed her the key.

"Let's go and set everyone and your mother free! But we'll need to stop for a second when we get to the second floor; some other mutts need to be dealt with before I leave."

Even though the pain was still visible in her eyes, I swear I could see the slightest of smiles grace the corners of her mouth.

* * *

After finishing my work on the second floor, we finally got back to the basement which was met with a loud cheer from the women. When they were released a tearful reunion happened between the mother and her daughter.

After, they approached me. "Thank you for releasing us from the cells and bringing me back my daughter. I don't even know what to think if she had stayed with him any longer. I just hope Gatō got what he deserved."

My face hardened and I gave a quick nod, and the other women nodded back to me.

Then the girl approached me, "He-hello, my n-name is O-Ona. I w-want to th-thank y-you for h-helping me, I th-thought that I w-wouldn't be a-able to s-see my mother a-again. E-even though G-Gatō took so-something that I'll n-never be a-able to g-get b-b-back, I am h-happy to s-still be a-alive."

Hearing her talk like that broke my heart. Obviously she was hurt, and the stutter probably came from it. It will probably be a while before she is able to overcome it.

I smiled, "I am happy to hear you are able to think positively. It shows just how strong you are." I then turned to the remaining women. "I think it's finally time for you all to return home."

The group of women cheered.

* * *

The walk back to the village was a slow pace and the sun was just now making an appearance.

During the walk, I learned that the women were all kidnapped while being home alone or while doing their daily routine alone throughout the day. This angered me because their families must have gone through so much pain, but it also made me happy knowing that they were now being returned.

As the village came into view, so did the silhouettes of a group of people waiting for us. Even though we were still a good distance away I could tell who was waiting.

Kaiza, Tsunami, Tazuna, Inari, and a few other villagers were waiting.

As we got closer, the group began running towards us and oddly enough Tsunami was running the fastest with Inari right on her heels and I found myself being knocked to the ground in the tightest hug I've ever experienced.

"Tomiko-chan, I was so worried!" Tsunami was crying, I could tell.

"Nee-sama, what were you thinking!" Inari was crying too.

"Ca-an't breath," I wheezed.

In an instant I felt relief, though Inari was still latched to me.

"I apologize for going off by myself." I said. "But Gatō had to be dealt with."

Tsunami looked at me with a shocked expression. "You mean he's…?" I nodded. "Oh, Tomiko-chan!" Again I was being crushed in the tightest hug ever.

"My Tomiko-nee-sama is the coolest!" Inari was shouting.

Kaiza, Tazuna, and the rest of the villagers finally arrived to the group.

"I see everything went well," Kaiza said, again I nodded.

Tazuna began to laugh. "This calls for a celebration! To the end of Gatō and all the tyranny he could have brought with him!"

The group of women and villagers at the scene began to cheer, and the commotion was catching the attention of the rest of the village.

In time we made our way to the center where many of the women began racing off into the arms of their families, and many cheers and shouts occurred. Towards the middle of it all, Tazuna and Kaiza began to quiet down the crowd. Silence fell as Tazuna began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Tazuna began. "Tonight, I call for the time of a celebration! Let us celebrate the end of a tyrant and to the life of a new beginning!" Many people began to cheer and agree, and then Tazuna looked to me and called me forward. "And let us celebrate in the honor of our newest hero! Tomiko Asashinkurīdo! Tomiko-chan, it would be an honor to us all if you were to attend our celebration. Think you can stick around for tonight?"

In the crowd, people began to cheer.

"Tomiko!"

"Tomiko!"

"Tomiko!"

Blushing, I bowed deeply to the people of the village. "No, Tazuna. You have it all wrong. It would be MY honor to attend the celebration. I can't thank you all enough for the kindness you have shown me." I chuckled nervously, "But first, it would be great if I could go take a nap."

After a great big yawn, I unceremoniously fell over and fell asleep to the sounds of cheering and laughter.

* * *

Hours later, I awoke to the sounds of cheerful laughter. Leaving the bed, and heading out of the room and down the stairs I saw Kaiza and his family seated around their dining table enjoying each other's company.

"Man," I said rubbing my left eye. "What time is it?"

"Tomiko-nee-sama!" Inari shouted as he leapt from his chair to wrap me up in a hug.

I smiled down at him and ruffled his hair. "Well hello to you too, Inari-kun."

Kaiza, Tazuna, and Tsunami looked at us with matching smiles.

"You're awake just in time for the celebration!" Tazuna cheered lifting his sake bottle.

"Yeah Nee-sama! Let's get going!"

After a slight chuckle I smiled, "All right! Just let me go grab a few things and we can get going!"

As we walked through the village towards the village center, I noticed how empty it was.

' _Wow, everyone must be at the center.'_

My thoughts were matched as the sounds of music, laughter, and cheering reached my ears. And soon enough the decorations, lights, and dancing people came into view.

Once we reached the center, people looked at me and cheered. Many began raising their bottles at me and shouting encouraging words. I smiled and waved back to them all.

Soon enough, though, many people began to fall quiet as the music stopped playing and everyone started turning towards our group.

As we approached the stage the band was on, Kaiza stepped on to it and began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said. "Just a week ago I thought my life was going to come to an end. But by the mercy of Kami himself, I was saved. Not only was I saved, but our village and the whole Land of Waves itself! And it's all thanks to our guest of honor, the girl who has taken Wave by storm, and has firmly planted a spot in all of our hearts. I would like to thank you, Tomiko Asashinkurīdo, for saving my life and allowing me to still be with my family." Kaiza then leaned down and grabbed a bottle of sake and lifted it into the air. "To Tomiko!" Many people followed after him and cheering began once more.

"Tomiko!"

"Tomiko!"

"Speech!"

"Speech!"

Hearing the cheers for a speech made me blush, but Kaiza grabbed firmly onto my hand and pulled me up onto the stage.

Soon enough the crowd was silent again and I gave out a nervous chuckle.

"In all honesty, I don't believe what I did would differ from what any other stranger should have done." Again I gave out a nervous chuckle. "So I'm not really sure what to say."

"Why did you do it?" Someone asked in the crowd. "Why did you decide to help us when you could have just let it go?"

I smiled at him. "Well that's easy," I said. "It's just because of who I am, and The Creed of my clan."

"The Creed of your clan?" He asked.

"What's that?" Came another voice.

Soon the crowd was filled with similar questions and hushed murmuring; it made me smile seeing everyone's honest curiosity.

"I could tell you about it if you want," I said smiling.

The crowd nearly nodded in unison, and I smiled once again.

As I told the crowd about The Creed, I could see the looks of concentration and complete curiosity in the eyes of the villagers, and once I was done complete silence filled the crowd. At first I was worried, but then one short proclamation made me smile ear to ear.

"To The Creed!" Someone in the crowd shouted holding up a bottle of sake.

"To The Creed!" The crowd shouted, following after his example.

Looking over the crowd of happily cheering people, I couldn't help but cheer along with them.

Music started playing once more, and the village continued its celebration long into the night.

 **Author's Notes:** So wow, I've been gone for a bit considering how long it took me to post the first three chapters. That is why I said to not put your hopes into consistent posting! As I'm sure you all know, life happens, and that's what took my time away from writing. But hey, I hope you enjoyed the fourth chapter. I might have to change the rating of the story because of it, but I don't know.

Oh, and to the anon who posted a review, I was happy to read it and hope you are reading this right now. You should make an account so you can follow and favorite!

Also, to those who are interested, if you have any idea's or things you want to see in the story write a review about it or send me a message! If I like the idea, I will put it in the story and then credit you in the Author's Notes.

Until next time!


	5. Out of Wave and Into the Fire

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:5 Out of Wave and Into the Fire

Morning came, and I once again found myself tucked into a bed inside Kaiza's home.

 _'When did I even go to bed last night?'_

Swinging my legs over the bed, I went to get up quickly but nearly tumbled over.

 _'And why in the hell does my head hurt so much…agh…'_

While walking down the stairs I could hear Kaiza and the family discussing the party from last night.

"Father," Tsunami said with a slight touch of annoyance to her voice. "I cannot believe you tricked Tomiko-chan into drinking so much sake last night!"

 _'Sake…'_

"My dear," he responded. "I only gave her a little bit, the rest she asked for herself! And besides, did you see how much fun she was having? Hahaha…OW!"

I could tell that Tazuna was once again hit with a pan.

"Only a little bit!?" Tsunami was arguably upset. "You gave her so much she became drunk in nearly fifteen minutes!"

 _'Drunk…'_

"And to make things worse, the poor thing kept blabbering on about her 'Jiji' and 'Ojisan' sending her to some shinobi village to _mate_ and rebuild her clan!"

 _'Was blabbering about…mating!?'_

Suddenly, everything started to turn black and the last thing I saw was Tazuna laughing so hard his drink was coming out of his nose and Kaiza rushing to catch me before I hit the ground.

 ** _TLA_**

"Oh Kami," I said as the world started coming back to me. "What hit me?"

"Hello Tomiko-chan," Tsunami said. "You just had a slight feinting spell."

"Yeah…" I said. "Right after you said I got drunk and was talking about…m-mating."

"Yeah Onee-sama!" Inari was shouting. "You just kept going on and on about it! Mating this, mating that!" My face kept getting hotter and hotter while Tazuna started laughing hysterically again. Then Inari tilted his head to the side, "What is mating, anyways?"

The house became very quiet.

"Is it what mom and dad do when they think I'm asleep?"

"W-well, Inari-kun you see…" Tsunami said while getting extremely embarrassed.

"I—Er…" Kaiza was becoming extremely red in the face.

Then they took a shy glance at each other and quickly looked away. "We'll tell you when you're older!" They said at the same time.

"Okayyyyy," Inari pouted. In all honesty I was just glad the conversation was away from me again.

"M-moving on!" Tsunami said clearing her throat. "Is everyone ready for breakfast?"

 ** _TLA_**

"So Tomiko-chan," Tazuna asked as he began shoving a piece of bacon into his mouth. "What do you plan on doing now that you have saved, Wave? Huh?"

"Well," I said. "I'm not quite sure. I know what I want to do, just not when to do it. I don't know if I want to travel a little more before heading somewhere to settle down, or to just go and do it, ya know?"

Tazuna was shaking his head in understanding, and I saw Tsunami and Kaiza give each other a subtle look, to which Kaiza nodded his head and Tsunami smiled.

"Tomiko-chan," Tsunami said. "Kaiza and I have been thinking, well, the whole family actually…We were wondering, well actually offering…Maybe you'd like to stay here? With us I mean?"

I was shocked and looked at everyone in the room. Kaiza grabbed Tsunami's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze and smiled at her, Tazuna was looking at me with a gleeful smile, and Inari looked like he could barely conceal himself.

"You…" I began. "You all want me to live here? With you?"

They all nodded, but Kaiza spoke. "Yes Tomiko-chan," he said. "We'd like to officially make you apart of the family by adopting you, if you'd be willing to, that is."

Tears began to build up in the corner of my eyes as a lump started to form in my throat.

 _'I…I honestly don't know what to say. They want me to be a part of their family…But…'_

"I…I don't know what to say."

"Say yes!" Inari was shouting as he ran over to hug me. "Say yes, Onee-sama! Then we could really be brother and sister!"

I smiled and hugged him back. "Inari-kun…"

"So, what do you say?" Tazuna asked.

"I…I'm sorry." I said.

"You…you don't want to stay with us, O-Onee-sama?" Inari's voice cracked towards the end as tears started to gather in his eyes.

"Inari-kun," I said while hugging him tighter in my arms. "Please don't cry." Tilting his head away from me, I wiped away the tear that began to roll down his cheek. "I appreciate your offer everyone, and to be honest, I really do consider you all as a second home and family…But, there are things I need to do in my life that will require living in a shinobi village."

I looked up, thinking to see anger, sadness, or disbelief in the eyes of my second, or rather third family. But when I looked at their faces I saw understanding, joy, and just a hint of longing from Inari.

"Well then that's that," Tazuna said taking a swig of something I was sure to be more alcohol. "But feel free to stay here as long as you need to! It'd be an honor to continue housing the hero of Wave!"

I beamed a smile at everyone.

 ** _TLA_**

I stayed with Kaiza and his family for the next couple of months.

At sunrise I would leave the house right before anyone else got up to go and train, and then return a little bit before Tsunami started dinner.

The Land of Waves is truly a beautiful country. Many times I would find myself training around its many mangroves, usually summoning Kenta because he enjoyed the scenery almost as much as I did.

Sometimes Inari would wake up at the same time just so he could ask to come with me. He would just sit and watch me quietly, which I didn't mind. Sometimes he'd even ask a question or two, exclaim how awesome I was, and then would continue to watch until we returned to the house.

I also continued to write in my journal, though it has become a bit more frequent considering my lack of travel. I usually update it once a week, sometimes more than once a week if something happens or if I discover something new.

But as my least favorite month approaches, I realize that maybe it's about time to relocate and begin my real journey.

After all, it's up to me to bring the Uchiha to justice.

 ** _TLA_**

It was time to continue my journey and I stood surrounded by those who were waiting to wish me safe travels. Towards the front of the group was Kaiza and his family and most of the women I rescued from Gatō.

"So this is it, huh?" Kaiza asked.

"Yeah," I said. "It's about time. I can't thank you, your family, and the Land of Waves enough for what you have all done for me."

"Think nothing of it kid," Tazuna spoke up. "It is us who will always be thankful to you, after all!"

I smiled at the two men who have grown to become like a father and grandfather to me and then wrapped them into a hug. After the hug, I pulled out a scroll and handed it to Kaiza.

"What is this," he asked.

"It is the deed to Gatō Company," I said simply. "But considering it's now yours, it'll be within your right to change the name."

After my small proclamation there were small gasps amongst the gathered.

"The deed to Gatō Company?" Kaiza looked completely bamboozled. "I…I don't know what to say. How did you do this?"

"Well," I began. "During my short periods that I'd go missing, I traveled to the Land of Fire and discovered their main shipping location. It didn't take me too long to remove the rats from within the company itself, so all that's left is a company full of honest workers willing to relocate if you want to take it."

"I see," he said. "So that's where you'd go off to. Well I still don't know what to say."

"How about you accept it already," Tazuna said while giving out a hearty laugh. "I don't think I know anyone other than myself worthy of the job!"

I smiled at Tazuna then looked at Kaiza. "So what do you say?"

He smiled, "I accept. Though I'll have to think of a new name I suppose."

"I look forward to hearing about your success!" I beamed.

He smiled. "Ah, Tomiko-chan. So sweet, I will miss your charm around here." We hugged one last time before I turned to Tsunami, who was obviously trying to hold back her tears while cradling the bump in her stomach.

"Tomiko-chan," she said while kneeling down. A stray tear began to roll down her cheek and I brushed it away as she pulled me into a tight hug. "Thank you for everything, dear. I know that's what everyone has been saying to you for the past couple of months, but there are just no other words. I just can't think what life would have been like if it weren't for you, and I will always be eternally grateful. The time you have spent with us has been very short, but I do think of you as family, and I cherish you as I would my own children. So please be careful during your new journey, I don't know what Wave would do if we ever found out anything happened to you."

Throughout her motherly speech, I began to tear up myself and hug her tighter. After she finished she leaned back and brushed away the tears that were rolling down my cheeks.

"Tsunami," I said grabbing her hand before she stood back up. "I think of you as a second mother. So, thank you for seeing me as a part of your family. And please, do not try to worry about me too much while I am gone, it would only make we worry about you, and I'm sure it wouldn't be good for the little one in there." I smiled while motioning to her stomach and pulled her into one last hug before she kissed my forehead and stood back up.

"Speaking of that beautiful bump," Kaiza said while approaching us again. He held on to Tsunami's hand and smiled. "If the baby turns out to be a girl, we would love to bestow upon her the honor of being named after your mother, Minori."

I froze, eyes widening.

"We understand if that makes you—"

"Yes," I smiled. A single tear cascading down my cheek. "I'm sure my mother would be honored, and you honor my clan with her memory."

Kaiza and Tsunami smiled, sharing a gentle kiss.

I then turned to Inari who was a snotting, slobbering, and sobbing mess and held my arms out. "Come here, you."

Inari then dashed forward and collided into my arms. "N-n-n-nee-sama!" He cried.

"Shh, it's okay Inari-kun," I said while rubbing small circles on his back.

"B-but I do-don't w-want you to l-leave," he said through hard breaths while trying to compose his sobbing.

"I know, I know Inari-kun," I said. "But I must go, you know that, right?"

"…I do," he said reluctantly. "But it doesn't m-mean I want you to!"

I laughed. "Now, now Inari-kun. If you were to be sad the whole time I was gone, how would you get any stronger by the time I see you again?" Through our time spent together, Inari has decided to follow his grandfather's footsteps, but to become strong enough to protect those he cherishes the most.

"You'll come and visit?" He asked.

I nodded my head. "I will most definitely try. It might be difficult once I become a part of a shinobi village, but I will never stop thinking about you. Maybe in the future, once I get settled in, I can write to you. Would you like that?"

Inari gasped and looked at me with starry eyes. "You would do that for me?"

"Of course I would," I said. "You're like the littlest, kid brother I've never had. So will you promise me something?"

"Anything, Nee-sama!"

"Promise me that you won't be too sad once I'm gone, and that you'll learn how to protect those you cherish. Can you do that for me Inari? After all, you're going to have a younger sister or brother to look after as well."

He smiled and shook his head fiercely. "You sure bet I can, Nee-sama! My baby sister or brother will never come to harm!"

I smiled and squeezed him once more before turning to the rest of the gathered crowd. From within the crowd I saw Ona, the girl I rescued from Gatō, begin to break away and head towards me. She has recovered greatly since her incident with Gatō, but I could tell that some affects still lingered.

"Hello Ona," I said smiling at her.

"H-hello Tomiko," she said with the slight stutter. She then reached her hands out and passed onto me a small box. "I h-hope you like it, anyone I-I could s-speak to within Wave chipped in to g-get it made for y-you."

Opening the box my eyes widened a little bit. Inside of it was a pendant connected to a metal chain, after pulling it out I saw that the kanji for 'Wave' was on the back of it.

"I don't know what to say," I said. "It looks absolutely stunning."

Ona smiled. "The chain and metal connected to the pendant is platinum, and the pendant is diamond with the 'Wave' kanji being black diamond."

"Holy crap! This thing must be worth a fortune. I don't know if I can accept this from you guys." I looked at Ona and the crowd with a slight frown on my face, to which Ona's mother approached.

"Please Tomiko," she said. "With the amount of people that chipped in for it, you don't need to worry about the price. We had it made in honor of you."

I looked at the pendant and held it up to my face and it sparkled once the sun hit it, I smiled. "All right, then." I put it on and the crowd cheered.

"Thank you all," I said. "I really don't know what to say."

"You never know what to say!" Someone shouted from the crowd, which got a good chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, goodbye to you too." I said waving my hand. Before leaving I looked to Tazuna once more. "Maybe you should build a bridge here, it would probably be easier for people to come and go then." And with that I turned and started my trek across the ocean.

Couldn't miss the perfect opportunity to train, could I?

Before I got too far, I could hear Tazuna 'hmm', "A bridge, huh?"

 ** _TLA_**

Once I reached the shores of the Land of Fire, I headed inland for a few miles before making camp for the night. I knew enough about the country to know that there was a small village nearby, and once the sun rises I will be going there to stock up on supplies.

After I got the camp set-up, I leapt into the tress and out into the dark. Once I found a sufficient tree, I sat in silence and waited for my prey.

A few moments passed and a sudden noise brought me out of my thoughts. A small group of deer were making their way towards the tree I was perched in and I smiled. After distinguishing which ones were pregnant, I waited for them to get closer and leapt from the tree. Driving my hidden blade into a doe that was not with child, I brought it down quickly so it would not suffer. After standing up, I pulled half the deer onto my shoulder and took it back to camp.

Once I got back to camp, I instantly got into skinning the carcass. Oddly enough, I enjoy skinning animals. Something about it soothed me.

When I finished skinning the deer, I moved to butchering and sectioning off what I wanted for dinner. The rest would be stored in scrolls or sold to the nearby town.

Staring into the fire while the deer cooked, I couldn't help but think back to when I killed for the first time.

 ** _TLA_**

 _"Tomiko-chan," my mother called._

 _"Yes, mother?" I said while running up to her._

 _"I would like you to take care of this rabbit for the next month. You can name it if you wish to, or just care for it over the next month. But it will be your sole responsibility, do you understand?"_

 _"I do, mother." I said taking the rabbit._

 _She smiled, "That's a good girl. Now go wash up, we will be having dinner soon."_

 _A month passed and I took care of the rabbit, but never decided to name it. I still enjoyed having it around though, feeding it and talking to it. It was rather nice._

 _"Tomiko-chan," I heard my mother calling. "Could you come to me please? And bring your rabbit as well._

 _Grabbing the rabbit, I headed towards her. "Here I am, mother," I said._

 _She looked at me seriously, and then spoke, "Extend your hidden blade." I did. "Now kill the rabbit."_

 _I stared at her for a few seconds and blinked. "You want me to kill it? But why? I thought I was taking care of it!" I couldn't kill the rabbit, it was my pet, my friend!_

 _"Tomiko," she said. "You must kill it now, or I will forbid you from continuing in your training."_

 _I stood there shocked. How could she stand there so cold and tell me that? But I couldn't allow her to stop my training, I needed it for the clan. Looking at the rabbit, tears began to fill my eyes._

 _"I'm sorry," I whispered. After inhaling deeply, I stabbed it through the neck while exhaling. The rabbit twitched a couple of times before it stopped moving, and I fell to my knees holding it and started to cry._

 _"I killed it," I cried. "I killed it!"_

 _The instant I hit the ground my mother's arms were around me. "Shh, Tomiko-chan. It will be okay."_

 _"How can you say it will be okay?" I questioned. "I just killed it for no reason at all. How is that okay?"_

 _My mother brought my head to her shoulder and rocked me as she spoke. "There will come a time in life where killing will always be necessary. Maybe it will be for your continued survival, killing an animal in order to eat and regain strength, or even killing another person in order to protect your life or someone's life that is precious to you."_

 _"But killing something doesn't make me feel good," I said._

 _I felt my mother smile slightly, "That's because you're human, my dear. Even though killing is sometimes necessary, you still feel bad about it; especially with animals, because they are fully innocent. You do not enjoy killing, which makes you human. But by giving each person or animal respect through their death, you can help fight against the guilt you feel."_

 _We sat in silence for a while before I spoke up, "Thank you for teaching me, mother."_

 _"You're welcome my beautiful daughter," she said. "But remember, if you begin to enjoy the kill you'll be losing the part of humanity that makes you, you. Do you understand?"_

 _I smiled at her. "I do, mother."_

 _"Good," she said. "Now go wash up, we will be having dinner shortly."_

 ** _TLA_**

Thinking back on that memory makes me sad, but happy at the same time; sad that my mother is no longer here to teach me her wisdom, but happy that I learned as much as I did before she was gone.

 ** _TLA_**

When morning came, I quickly took down my camp and removed any evidence of ever being there. Being in one of the Great Five, there is always a risk of running into patrols or roaming missing-nin. So I like to play it safe.

Once I felt my job was done, I headed off for the nearby town. After arriving I found it to be oddly quiet. Not many people were on the streets, and those who were, were quickly moving with their heads down.

 _'I wonder what's going on?'_

Heading down the main road, I also noticed most of the shops were closed or boarded up. This instantly put me on alert, something was very wrong.

Finding the general store wasn't too hard, and thankfully it was open.

"Hello?" I called out once going through the entrance. It was silent at first, but then I felt danger and quickly deflected a knife that was thrown in my direction.

"I'm sorry!" I heard someone call out. "I thought you were one of them."

"It's quite all right," I said. "But who are you talking about?"

A man came from out behind the counter. He was rather tall, but also really slim. He had on tan slacks, a white button-up and brown apron. "Oh dear me," he said. "I threw a knife at one so young!"

I rolled my eyes, "But I deflected it, ne?"

He smiled, "That you did. But what are you doing here, my child? It's dangerous to be outside now!"

"Well," I began. "I originally came to the town to buy some supplies for my journey but noticed that everyone I saw was acting strangely. What's been going on here?"

His face became grim, but he also smiled. "Well I'm glad you stopped by to buy things from me. But I must ask you to leave once you are done, I couldn't keep my conscience clean if I knew you got hurt while staying here."

"What exactly is happening here?" I asked, getting slightly irritated for having to do so once again.

"Bandits." He simply said, I narrowed my eyes.

"What about bandits? What are they doing?"

"A rather large group of them set up camp slightly outside of the town borders. We have been trying to send for help, but every time we try, a group of them will come into town with the body of the person we sent. They take whatever they want once they leave."

I sat in silence for a moment before speaking again, "Have they taken anyone?"

"Not yet," he said. "But the last group that came said that they'd start taking the women and children if it happened again."

I narrowed my eyes once more.

"Do you know what direction they come from?"

"They usually come from the north," he said with a hint of worry to his voice. "You can't honestly be thinking about going to their camp? Are you? You're just a child!"

"A child that can handle herself, thank you very much," I said while heading towards the door. "I will be back later to gather my supplies.

And with that, I made my way towards the north side of the town. Hopefully finding this bandit camp wouldn't take too long.

 ** _TLA_**

Finding the camp took no time at all, really. It could be the size of it, the smell of it, or even all the smoke the rises into the sky from their fires. I'm honestly surprised that no one has discovered it yet.

Activating my kekkei genkai, I started examining the camp.

The store clerk was right though, there are a lot of them down there.

 _"Sixty…one-twenty…one-eighty…two hundred. Gosh, this'll be a lot of work. I should probably wait until nighttime to take out the ones who are sleeping quietly, and then just take out the rest afterwards. I do need a workout after all."_

Watching the camp until night arrived, I watched them all interact with each other. They seemed like they were a bunch of normal men and women, but I could tell they weren't. The signs were quite obvious really, the occasional brawl here and there, the rough sexual advance that would happen every once and a while. The heavy stench of blood.

Just now another fight broke out, but I could tell it was different. It appeared someone was fighting the leader of the group and losing heavily. It's like they're a pack of wolves, really; fighting for mates, food, and dominance. The fight ended pretty quickly. To my surprise, the leader came out to be a shinobi; probably a missing-nin who discovered them and took over.

 _"He didn't show me a lot, so I'll have to look out for him. At least he made it so that there are only one ninety-nine."_ I chuckled to myself.

The group began to disperse just as the sun was setting, and I could see some of them heading towards their tents while others stayed awake drinking and being merry.

It was time.

 ** _TLA_**

Sneaking into the camp was rather simple. They didn't really have a sense of security, none of the lights bordered the camp, and there were no patrols. Maybe they thought their size would make anyone that passed by walk away? How wrong they were.

Going from tent to tent was simple enough. Most civilians didn't have adequate eye-sight to see through the shadows, so that's where I kept myself hidden. Sometimes the occasional bandit would be awake just inside the tent and I'd lure them out to their death, but that was the worst of it when it came to difficulty so far.

Once all of the tents were cleared, I activated the Īgurubijon to find out the location of the leader. His golden silhouette was now just heading towards the main campfire.

 _'Well this should be fun…'_

Withdrawing my sword, I began strolling towards the campfire. The straight side of the sword was dragging in the dirt beside me as I got closer. Along the way people began to stare, obviously not knowing who I was and began to follow.

I found myself at the center of the camp, finally; standing right in front of the large fire, and directly in front of the leader.

We started at each other for a few minutes before he broke the silence, "And who the hell might you be, little girl?"

"The nearby village's help."

That got a few chuckles from within the crowd that was gathered, including the leader. "That pathetic village sent a child, a CHILD to fight for them?"

I just narrowed my eyes at him. But before I could say something, someone began to yell.

"They're dead! Everyone's dead!"

That got everyone's attention as the man approached the leader.

"What the hell do you mean?"

"In the tents," he said. "Everyone's dead!"

The leader then looked back to me. "Is this your fault?" He asked angrily.

I smirked.

"Someone kill her!"

And just then, three foolish people came at me with no weapons. Two of which, were drunk. Once they got close enough, I jumped into the air and did a split kick knocking two of them back and while falling back to the ground twisted my body and slid my sword across the last one's chest.

"My, my, my," I said. "That was interesting."

The leader was fuming at the foolish display, "Whoever kills this little filth will be my right-hand and get 50% of what I own!"

And so it began.

I found myself ducking, blocking, and sliding under a vast array of weapons.

Soon enough, I went on the offense. Many of the bandits weren't skilled, and I could simply kill them without trying.

 _'What is there, like forty left?'_

Breaking my thought, I parried a strike that was going for my neck and drove into one of the men next to me. Pulling my sword back, I quickly charged forward and drove my sword through another one's chest.

"This is too easy!" I said tauntingly. That angered most of them and they continued their attacks.

Sliding under the swing of a mace, I hooked my arm around a woman's leg and brought her to the ground and drove a hidden blade through the back of her neck.

"Who's next?" I asked smiling.

 ** _TLA_**

Now that all the grunts were gone, I stand face to face with the leader. He looks angry, shocked, and funnily enough a little scared. Good.

"You, you killed all of my men!"

"Well, yeah."

"There were two-hundred of us, how could you…a child, possibly do that!?" He was beginning to get aggressive.

"I actually killed one-hundred ninety-eight. That leaves you and the one you killed earlier."

"The one I killed earlier," he said with a hint of surprise. "You've been here that long!?"

I shrugged.

"Well you better beat it kid, before I get serious. Unlike that other piss-fodder, I'm an actual trained shinobi!"

"Oh, really?" I said. "Where from?"

He then pulled out a forehead protector that had the images of two small boulders sitting on it. "Missing-nin from Iwagakure," he said. "A chūnin too, so scram kid, before I decide to kill you for ruining my fun!"

I looked at my sword, and then at all the bodies around us. "Nah!"

"I mean it, kid!"

"I'm shaking in my boots."

With an aggravated grunt, he ran through different hand signs and brought his hands to his mouth. "Earth Style: Stone Pistol Jutsu!"

Suddenly stones were being shot at me and I leapt to the sides avoiding each one.

"I should have known this was going to be a rocky encounter!" I shouted.

"Stop mocking me you brat," he shouted; then flew through some more hand signs and slammed his hands on the ground. "Earth Style: Dragon Blast Jutsu!"

In an instant a giant, rock dragon began shooting more projectiles at me.

 _'Shit, these ones are a little faster. I need to get in on him, fast.'_

Charging at the missing-nin, I began to dodge and deflect the rocks coming my way. Seeing the change in pace, the nin grabbed a handful of dirt and rose to his feet. "Earth Style: Elemental Sword!"

The dirt he had grabbed then became a sword and he charged; I smirked.

 _'So it's a sword fight you want, ne?'_

I met him head on and our blades clashed. "You know," he began. "Now that I'm a little closer, you're not that bad looking. Maybe I'll have my way with you before killing you."

My eyes darkened as I looked at him, "You're disgusting!" Bringing my blade back, we clashed a few more times before my sword crushed through his rock-sword and slashed him across the chest.

"Damn it!" He yelled. "Forget it! I'll just fuck your corpse once you're dead! Earth Style: Stone Thorn Bed Jutsu!" He slammed his hands onto the ground once more and stone spikes began rising from the ground.

 _'Oh dang.'_

Jumping back, I began dodging the spikes that started rising out of the ground around me.

 _'Oops…Ah!...Dang it!...Eek!...'_

The spikes finally stopped once I was a good twenty-five feet away from the center. The Iwa-nin began panting, the effects of the cut I left on his chest taking place. Taking the opportunity, I started dashing through the spikes again, but he started doing more hand signs.

"Earth Style: Rock Thorn Launch Jutsu!"

I had to stop my advance as the spikes around me began to shoot off into the air, then after going a good distance began to fall once more to the ground like little speeding javelins.

I looked back to the Earth user and he was just finishing more hand signs, "Earth Style: Rock Dome!" After slamming his hand onto the ground once more, a dome formed around him.

"Ah, damnit."

Activating my eyes, I could see he was just taking a breather instead of doing anything sneaky. So while dodging more of the stupid spikes, I began charging towards the dome.

 _'If my sword could cut through Ojisan's leg when charged with chakra, then it sure as hell can cut through that dome!'_

Charging my blade with chakra, I began to hear the familiar humming I heard when I cut through Katashi-ojisan's leg.

Approaching the dome, I brought my sword forward and lined it up to drive through the nin's chest.

"Knock, knock you bastard!"

In an instant my blade went through the dome and hit its mark. As the dome began to crumble, I saw the surprised look that was in his eyes.

Blood began to leak from the corner of his mouth and he coughed. "I-impossible," he said before he slumped over.

"Well I just made the impossible, possible."

 ** _TLA_**

"You took out the entire camp!?"

I could tell that the clerk was surprised.

I shrugged. "I said I was capable of taking care of myself."

He just nodded with eyes wide. "Yes, yes, I remember. I just never thought, wow."

I smiled, "I am back for the supplies I said I wanted though."

"Yes," he said. "Take whatever you need! Free of charge!"

I tilted my head to the side, "Are you sure about that?"

"Of course!" He said, "You saved the town after all!"

I blushed. "Well yeah, it was all I could do. But could you keep it on the down low? I want to get out of the town before there's too much of a ruckus."

"Of course," he said again. "My lips are sealed! That is until you leave! The people must know we are free, after all."

I smiled. "Thank you."

 ** _TLA_**

Once I got all the supplies I needed, I left the village.

Finally deciding where to go, I started in the direction where I knew the village was located.

But suddenly, two people appeared in front of me.

One was a tall man with dark hair. He had his face wrapped in bandages, and a giant sword strapped to his shirtless torso and his arms were crossed in front of his chest.

The other person was way younger than the man. She, or he…Definitely a he, looks to be a couple of years older than myself. His kimono gives off the impression of being a female, but I can tell he's a male.

We stood in silence just looking at each other for a few minutes.

Then finally, I spoke.

"Alright I'll give," narrowing my eyes. "Who are you?"

 **Author's Notes:**

[04/05/18] I didn't think it would take to long to do this. i DiDn'T tHiNk It WoUlD tAkE sO lOnG tO dO tHiS.

I know it's been a while since I posted the last chapter, but you know how that goes. Life happens, you can't write, then all of a sudden a lot of time has passed and people forget about your story. So hi, I'm back for now with another chapter. But with this chapter I have decided to officially bump it to a 'M' rating. I thought about it last chapter, and I do think the sexual references and swearing here and there will increase as the story continues.

I also wanted to go on about Tomiko for a moment. If she seems more mature and capable for her age, I apologize, but that's what I want her to be like. When she becomes a part of her selected village, she will also have others to interact with. So that will also show more of her childish side. In the future she will also come across people who will put a lot of mental strain on her that will crack her character for a moment, so there will be that to look forward to.

But I hope you enjoyed the chapter, some parts made me chuckle to myself.

Until next time!


	6. A Demon's Apprentice

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:6 A Demon's Apprentice

…

Silence was all that I was met with. I could already feel my right eyebrow beginning to twitch.

"I guess I'll try again," I said. "Who exactly are you two?"

Again we just sat there and stared at each other, they're really starting to get on my nerves to be honest.

"Well, if all you want to do is sit and look at me," I said crossing my arms over my chest. "Then I think I'll continue on my way." I turned to my left and began walking into the forest, but before I got too far I felt incoming danger and had to deflect a senbon, made of ice?, away from my face.

I turned back to my new 'friends' with an annoyed voice, "That wasn't very nice, ya know!"

Even though the taller man's mouth was covered, I could tell that he was smirking as he looked to his smaller companion. "Go," was all he said and suddenly I was deflecting an incredible amount of senbon.

"Why in the world are you attacking me?" I asked, dodging another handful of senbon.

Again. No response.

I rolled my eyes. "Well then don't answer," I said. "But I'll get you to talk."

 _'If he wants to fight me from a distance, I'll just bring the fight to him.'_

Extending both of my hidden blades, I charged right at him. Surprisingly enough, he could keep up with the speed I was currently putting out.

As we traded blows, I could tell I was actually beginning to overpower him; my blade work was obviously superior. Occasionally the senbons he'd be using would break; because like I thought, they were made of ice and my hidden blades would smash right through them after a certain amount of beatings. Eight to be exact.

 _'Seven..'_

 _'Eight!'_

As he lost his concentration with another senbon breaking, and magically creating another out of thin air, I took it as an opportunity to strike.

Bringing my left leg up after the senbon shattered, I brought my shin to the side of his body and sent him tumbling to the right of me. Staying right with him, I waited for him to tumble once more before kicking him in the chin with my foot, sending him flying.

As Mysterious Boy went flying, I looked to see if Mysterious Man would jump in. Seeing as though Mysterious Man still had his arms crossed with a studious gaze in his eyes, I looked back at Mysterious Boy as he began to sit back up.

I smirked, "Ready to talk yet?"

He shot me a glare, spat out some blood, and got back to his feet.

To my disappointment, he started making hand signs.

 _'Well this doesn't look very good…'_

Just then, water shot up from the ground around us and formed into needles.

Right as I was about to say something, the needles fired towards me at an alarming rate. Thinking quickly, I pulled out my sword and pivoted on my right heel, spinning quickly. Using the katana to block the needles that were further away, I used my left-handed hidden blade to block the others that were frighteningly close to my body.

 _'If I think about it, none of these needles would have struck me fatally. Maybe Mysterious Boy isn't trying to kill me?'_

As I deflected the last needle, I stopped my spinning to look at Mysterious Boy. "You know Mysterious Boy," I said smirking. It made his left eyebrow twitch. _'Fufufu…'_ "You might be fast with those senbon, but it'll take more than that to kill me."

He looked at me curiously then tilted his ahead. "I apologize if my tactics made you believe I was trying to kill you," _'I GOT HIM TO TALK!'_ "That was not my intention."

"If I didn't know any better," I said. "Your voice would make me think you were a girl…"

Eyebrow twitched. _'Fufufu…'_

Just as he started making more magical senbon, Mr. Mysterious Man decided to speak up. "Stop," he said in a commanding voice. In not even a second Mysterious Boy stopped what he was doing and was at his side.

I was going to say something, but my instincts kicked in and I pulled my sword up to my face just as Mysterious Man's GIANT FRIGGIN' SWORD came within inches of my face.

 _'What. The. Fuck.'_

"I was waiting for you to pull out that katana," he whispered.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed back a little and leapt a small distance away.

"What's it to you?" I asked.

"Just a little curious is all. It's a very nice-looking blade."

It felt like sparring with Katashi-ojisan all over again. I could see his attacks coming, and I could JUST deflect or parry them, but his defense was good and I felt myself continuously being pushed back.

Luckily, I found another opportunity and was able to leap a small distance away again.

Getting into a defensive position, I took a deep breath and shot a glare at Mysterious Man. "Because Mysterious Boy decided not to answer, I'll ask you then. Who are you and why are you attacking me?"

He shot his own glare, but looked at me curiously as well.

"It appears you are not affected by Killing Intent."

"I was trained at a young age so that I wouldn't be. It also appears that you cannot answer questions."

He smirked and then charged, swinging his giant sword right at my head. Rolling to my left to dodge the swing, I was just about to rebalance myself before feeling a blow to my stomach and flying backwards.

 _'Shit he's fast.'_

Getting up, I saw him make a pose.

 _'What in the—'_

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu"

After his declaration, a thick mist began forming in the area and I could no longer see him or the boy.

 _'I didn't want to have to use the Īgurubijon in this…'_

Activating my kekkei genkai, I could see Mysterious Boy still standing off to the side and Mysterious Man was standing still but suddenly vanished and appeared in my peripheral to the left side of my body. Wanting to use this as an opportunity, I quickly placed a normal, fast-acting poison dart into my left gauntlet and fired it. To my disappointment, he saw it coming and easily deflected it.

 _'Well that's depressing, I was hoping that this would work both ways.'_

Turning towards him, I got into a defensive pose and started waiting for his impending charge.

"Well this is interesting," he said. "Only the Byakugan is supposed to be able to see through the mist. You're obviously not a Hyūga, so you must be a sensor, which would be impressive at your age. That is unless you have an unknown kekkei genkai."

 _'The way he said that last part makes me think he already knows. How could he possibly know that? He'd have to be watching me in order—'_ Realization hit me and my eyes widened.

"You were watching me at the bandit camp." I said.

"Ah, there it is," he said and the mist dissipated. He smirked, "I was waiting to see how long it would take you."

I grit my teeth in frustration. "Why were you watching me at the camp?"

He smirked.

"Why won't you answer my questions?!"

Charging forward, I began pushing chakra into my sword. As I was doing this, I could see the look of interest creep back into his eyes.

Reaching him, I brought my katana forward in a sideways motion and he went to deflect it with his sword, sharp-edge out. Our eyes widened when my sword wasn't stopped by his. The chakra coating my sword allowed it to continue cutting _through_ his blade instead. The sight was rather shocking to both parties. Continuing with the surprises though, I saw his eyes narrow as the chakra coating my blade quickly started to extend over his blade, I smirked. But just as the chakra was about to reach his hand, my smirk vanished as I felt a powerful kick to my chest and I went flying back. To my horror, my katana didn't come with me, but stayed in place in the cut that was halfway through his blade.

After I finished tumbling I went to get back up but was slammed back into the ground by Mysterious Man's foot.

"A swordsman should never lose his or her sword," he said. My eyes began to widen as he continued, "It could be the last thing they ever do."

I looked at him standing above me in complete shock, but his image was replaced by another's.

 ** _TLA_**

 _Mother's sword came in a swinging motion and I went to deflect it with mine, but as they made contact I wasn't prepared for the force and my sword went flying out of my hand. To my surprise, she didn't stop but kicked me away and sent me tumbling. After I stopped tumbling she pushed me back to the ground with her foot._

 _"Tomiko-chan," she said seriously. "A swordsman should never lose his or her sword. It could be the last thing they ever do."_

 ** _TLA_**

I continued staring up at him in a daze, but wasn't really in the moment.

"I thi—broke—za-sama." I heard someone say as my shock began to slip away.

To my surprise I found both Mysterious Boy and Man standing above me. Thankfully I saw my sword lying beside me and I quickly grabbed it and rolled away before they noticed I was out of shock.

"Welcome back to the world of the living," Mysterious Boy said.

"You left one Hell of a cut through Kubikiribōchō," Mysterious Man said placing the giant sword upon his back once more and crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm impressed."

I narrowed my eyes at their relaxed forms, "So am I allowed to leave now?"

"Not quite yet," Mysterious man said. "But we will now answer your questions, and I would like to ask you a few of my own."

"What do you think gives you the right to ask me questions? You're the ones who attacked me!"

He lifted his eyebrow? Almost non-existent eyebrow. "Not killing you."

 _'…Ah.'_

I slowly sheathed my katana. "I suppose. So who are you?"

"My name is Zabuza Momochi." _'Zabuza Momochi?!'_ "And this is my weapon, Haku."

I narrowed my eyes at his reference for the now named Haku, but let them continue.

Haku bowed slightly, "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Zabuza Momochi," I said. "I've read about you. You were nicknamed Demon of the Hidden Mist after you slaughtered an entire class of graduating students."

He raised an almost non-existent eyebrow again, "I'm surprised one so young knows of my fun, but past extra-curricular activities." He chuckled darkly, "But those were the days." He smirked after sighing happily.

My left eye twitched.

"I read it in a family journal."

Before they could say anything I continued with my questions, "Why did you attack me?"

"I will answer that later," Zabuza said. "The answer co-exists with one of my questions."

"I see," I said. "Then why were you at the bandit camp I disassembled earlier?"

"That is simple," he said. "I heard that there was trash somewhere around here and wanted to test how far Haku's abilities have come along."

"Why did you stay if you noticed I was there?"

"At first I was going to have Haku continue with the plan, but then I got interested after seeing you sneak tent to tent."

"How do you know about my kekkei genkai?"

He smirked, "So you picked that up, huh?" He asked. "Brat, I'm an A-Ranked Missing-nin from the Hidden Mist, where I was a Jōnin ranked ANBU. It was easy to see something was going on. Not only did you know which tents had people inside of them, you knew the exact moment they were within your reach. At first that could be written off as being a sensory type, and I thought that was what you were. But then the dome happened, and you were able to know the exact position the man was in in order to stab him through the heart. Sure, a sensory type would have known he was in there, but someone with a kekkei genkai, a dōjutsu would probably be more fitting, would know his exact position."

I stared at him flabbergasted, mouth slightly ajar.

"Now it's my turn," he said. "What is your name, brat?"

My eyebrow twitched after being called a brat for the second time. "Tomiko Asashinkurīdo."

"Asashinkurīdo?" He asked. "If that is your clan name, I have never heard of it before. Where are they?"

I looked away from them, hesitating before answering. "Gone."

In my peripheral I could see Haku physically flinch, and Zabuza's jaw clench.

"Do you know what happened to them?" Haku asked gently.

"They were massacred by some masked man." I lied partially.

"Why would someone do such a thing?" I could hear the anger in Haku's words.

"Probably because of the kekkei genkai your clan possessed." Zabuza said, and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Hey brat, don't go looking at me like that. The Land of Water is currently in a civil war, if you didn't know, kekkei genkai users and their allies against those who oppose them. That belief has been spreading to other countries as well. If someone strong enough discovered a band of kekkei genkai users travelling around, they would think nothing was wrong if they just went and slaughtered them. The same thing happened to Haku and his family."

My eyes widened and I looked to Haku who looked down. "I don't know if a clan existed or not, but I, along with my mother, have a kekkei genkai called Ice Release." _'Well that explains the ice senbon.'_ "When I was young I discovered that I could easily manipulate water, and ended up showing my mother. She became frightened and scolded me, telling me to never do it again. I didn't understand what she meant at first, but later on I found out that my father witnessed it. He gathered a mob of villagers and killed my mother in front of me. They would have killed me too if…I was scared and the kekkei genkai reacted to my fear. Giant ice spikes shot up from the ground and killed everyone around me, including my father."

"The people in the Land of Water are foolish," Zabuza said. "Kekkei genkai users are strong weapons to be used by others, they should not be thrown away as if they're useless."

I glared at Zabuza, "My family members…Were. Not. _Tools._ "

Zabuza glared right back at me. "Brat, all shinobi are tools to be used as weapons by those who lead them. In this world there are those who use and those who are used, nothing more and nothing less."

"But people aren't just tools," I growled. "They are friends, family, loved ones, and precious people." Haku appeared to be having inner turmoil over my words. "Do you honestly believe the words that are coming out of your mouth?"

Zabuza narrowed his eyes, "You don't understand the life of shinobi, brat. Your abilities and strengths are the only things that matter in this world."

We glared at each other for several minutes before Haku spoke up, "I think you should agree to disagree with her, Zabuza-sama."

Zabuza casted a short glance to Haku, "Fine," he said. "She's just being a stubborn brat."

"It takes a stubborn brat to know a stubborn brat."

Haku smiled.

 ** _TLA_**

Seeing as though Zabuza and Haku were no longer threats to myself, we ended up making camp together.

It was slightly awkward.

I could tell that Zabuza had something on his mind, and because of that Haku was anxious.

Because Zabuza was making Haku anxious it made me nervous.

"All right, all right, all right," I started. "What the hell is up with you two?"

"Watch your tongue brat," Zabuza spat. "Or I'll pull it out."

"If you wanted to, you would have already."

"Don't test me, damn it!"

"Zabuza-sama…" Haku said nervously.

Zabuza growled and then plopped down on the ground.

"Listen here brat," …slight twitch. "I have one more question, or proposition really.

"Oh, are we still doing this?"

Zabuza had to take a few breaths to calm himself down in order to talk. _'Fufufu…'_ "If you haven't forgotten already, I do have one more question of yours to answer."

 _'Ah…'_

"Go on then."

"Haku and I attacked you to test your abilities. While watching you decimate that bandit camp, I saw the potential that was inside of you, especially with that katana of yours. As one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist I am known as a master swordsman, and as such am allowed to take on an apprentice to mentor and pass on all my abilities. Originally I wanted Haku, but he isn't much of a swordsman," Haku fell off his log. "So he prefers senbon. But now here you are."

A pause.

"You want _me_ to be your _apprentice_?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Yes." Zabuza said, Haku was up on his log again and nodding.

"I…no."

"What?!" Both Zabuza and Haku shouted.

I lifted an eyebrow. "You honestly believe that'd I'd say yes to you after almost _killing_ me? That's ridiculous."

"It was to test your abilities," Zabuza said. "I don't want a useless tool."

"I am not a tool!" I stated angrily. "Did you attack Haku before asking him to follow you around?"

"No, he was a child and—"

" _I'm_ a child." I said, left eye twitching.

"You're different," he said. "I witnessed you slaughter an entire bandit camp first."

"I…" _'Have nothing to say to that…'_ "That doesn't give you the right to just, 'test my abilities.'" I rolled my eyes.

"Any more excuses?" Zabuza asked. "I don't accept that one."

I shot him a look. "You think you have a choice in the matter?"

"Well yes," he said. "You are going to be my apprentice after all."

My eye twitched. "I'm not your apprentice yet!"

"Not _yet_ ," he said smoothly.

 _'Well shit…'_

I sighed, "Look Zabuza I—"

"Zabuza-shishou." Zabuza said interrupting me.

"You are not my master!" I yelled in exasperation. "I have places to be, and things to do!"

"What could be more important than learning swordsmanship from one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist?"

"Oh I don't know," I said getting irritated. "Joining a village in order to gain the knowledge needed to bring justice to my clan! That could be one! Okay?!" Standing up, I gave out an aggravated growl before jumping off into the forest.

 ** _TLA_**

Some distance away from the campsite, I found a clearing covered in boulders. Taking out my frustration I began cutting through them, and smashing them with my sword.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

"You have a rather dirty mouth for someone your age." I heard come from the forest and turned to point my sword at Zabuza.

"I am not a brat!" I said. "And I don't care what you think about my language."

"Fine kid," he said. "You're not that much of a brat, and I don't care about your language either."

I growled, "What do you want, Zabuza?"

I could tell what he wanted to come here for was making him feel uncomfortable. "Listen here bra—kid," he said. "I'm not very good with shit like this. So I'm only going to say this once, and once only. You get me?"

"I guess?"

"Unlike the popular belief these days, I'm not a cold-hearted, mindless killing machine. Yes, I believe shinobi are to be used as weapons and tools, but that doesn't mean we're supposed to be heartless. Over the years I have learned a thing or two from Haku's compassion, and that damned kid has been rubbing off on me ever since I picked him up. So look kid, I'm sorry I pushed my apprenticeship on you."

I stood there dumbfounded.

 _'What the hell was that?'_

"Are you sure you're Zabuza Momochi, A.K.A. Demon of the Hidden Mist?" I asked openly.

He twitched.

"Gosh damn it, you brat!"

Suddenly I found myself ducking under the Kubikiribōchō, spinning ever so graciously over my head.

"What was that for?!"

"Listen to me when I'm trying to apologize to you, damn it!"

"Fine, I accept your apology!"

"Good, become my apprentice then!"

"Didn't I just tell you why I couldn't?" I asked.

"How couldn't learning under me help you?" He asked. "Even if for a short amount of time?"

 _'I…guess that could work.'_

"What would a short amount of time mean?" I asked.

"You name it, you got it."

"I…"

 _'Right now I'm nine…Jiji said he believes academy students from hidden villages usually graduate around the ages of twelve and thirteen…if I were to arrive at the village at the age of ten that would give me two to three years of socialization before graduating…'_

"A year. Max," I said.

"Deal."

"That's all I'm—Wait, deal? Just like that?"

"Yes." Zabuza crossed his arms. Seeing that I was trying, but failing to get him to not agree he smirked, "So you're my apprentice now."

I wanted to growl at him, but a warm feeling inside my chest made me smile instead. "I guess I am, Shishou. But I'm not some tool, got it?!"

Zabuza continued to smirk, "Let's head back to camp."

 ** _TLA_**

"Hello Zabuza-sama, Tomiko-chan." Haku said as we made our way back to the camp.

"Hello Haku-…senpai." I said blushing.

"Senpai? Zabuza-sama, does that mean?" Haku asked looking to Zabuza, who was nodding in response. Haku smiled, "Welcome then."

"Y-yeah." I pulled my hood up over my head and sat down to hide my blush. _'Why is he so pretty?!'_

"Listen up you two," Zabuza said. "Tomorrow we will be heading back to our main camp. Tomiko-gaki," My eyebrow twitched and Zabuza-shishou smirked. "We have another camp not too far from here, but we will be waiting until morning to return. I have two others around my age, Gōzu and Meizu, who are travelling with us. You will be meeting them then, understood?"

"Yes, Shishou."

"Excellent," he said. "Now, we will have three rotations of watch tonight. Tomiko, I don't know what your sleeping patterns are, but I will give you the first watch. Once that is over you will wake up Haku who will have the second watch, you may go to sleep after that or decide not to. I don't really care. Haku, wake me up for the third watch. Once it is morning, we will have a short breakfast and then will head for the other camp. Understood?"

"Yes, Zabuza-shishou/sama," Haku and I said.

"Good, now I'm going to bed. Try not to make too much noise, brat."

And with that, Zabuza went to his tent and was out like a light.

Haku-senpai and I chuckled.

"I shall be retiring for the night as well, Tomiko-chan," Haku-senpai said. "I will see you for the shift change."

"Sleep well, Haku-senpai." I said. Haku gave me a small smile and then retired to his tent.

 _'Oh Tomiko, what have you gotten yourself into?'_

 ** _TLA_**

"Haku-senpai," I said crawling into his tent. "It's time for your watch."

He was silent for a moment, and then smoothly rose from his sleeping mat.

"Thank you for waking me, Tomiko-chan," he said. "Will you be going to bed, then?"

"Not quite yet," I said. "I usually go to bed a little later."

He smiled. "All right," he said. "Then I will enjoy your company until then."

We then left his tent, deciding to sit in a comfortable proximity from each other in the middle of the camp site.

"So Tomiko-chan," Haku-senpai said. "What exactly drove you into clearing out that bandit camp?"

"Well," I began. "I went into a village that is close-by and was attacked when I went into the general store that was located near the center of it." Haku raised an eyebrow. "The man who owned the store thought I was one of the bandits coming back. He apologized and told me that a group of bandits set up camp somewhere outside of the town borders. They tried sending for help, but whenever they sent someone a group of bandits would come into the village with the body of the person they sent. The last group that came told them that they'd start taking women and children if they continued what they were doing. So I took matters into my own hands."

"That was pretty noble of you," Haku said. "I'm sure he was surprised someone your age did that."

"Oh yes, he was. So surprised he gave me everything I wanted for free."

Haku chuckled. "I'm glad you could help them."

I nodded. "It would go against my clan's Creed if I just let it happen."

"Your clan's Creed?" Haku-senpai was looking at me with a puzzled gaze.

 _'Should I just say "Yep!" or just explain? I feel as if this happens every time I mention it.'_

"Yeah," I said. "It was adopted after the Second Shinobi World War. 'To protect and fight on the behalf of those who do not possess the abilities, resources, or knowledge to speak out against those who abuse their power.' I suppose it was used in a way to push our clan members past their limits in order to get stronger, you know?"

Haku closed his eyes in thought before opening them and smiling. "That was, or is rather noble of your clan. I, myself, believe we become stronger when we have someone precious to us to protect. But if your clan decided that those who are innocent are precious enough to protect, then they must have been exceedingly strong."

"Yeah…" I said sadly.

"You must miss them." It wasn't a question.

"Well I never got to meet my clan," I said. Haku seemed surprised. "My mother wasn't with the clan when she gave birth to me. So when no one showed up, she went back but found everyone dead. She was the only one I had up until her death. I just had our summons after that."

Haku's eyebrows looked like they wanted to jump off of his forehead. "You have a summoning contract?"

"I do," I said. "But that's probably unexpected of me, ne?"

"You could say," he said. "Zabuza-sama would probably be surprised when he hears of it as well. What kind of summoning contract do you possess?"

"It's a spider summoning contract," I said. "They're more of an extended family though." I gave Haku a sad smile.

He came closer and put his arm around me, giving me a side hug. "Don't be sad, Tomiko-chan," he said. "Like you said, they're like your extended family, and now you have me and Zabuza-sama, Gōzu and Meizu if you wish to have them as well."

I let out a shaky sigh and smiled at Haku, "Thank you for cheering me up, Haku-senpai."

"Think nothing of it, Tomiko-chan," he said. "It is what senpai's are supposed to do. At least I think that's what they're supposed to do; I have never been one before."

We both chuckled at that.

"But please," Haku-senpai continued. "Do tell me more about yourself."

"Uh," I blushed a bit. "What do you want to know?"

"Surprise me!"

 _'Ooookay...'_

"How about this," I said. "I'm the 'Hero of Wave Country'."

"That is rather surprising," Haku said. "How'd that happen?"

"Well, I'm sure you've heard about rumors going around about Gatō?" Haku nodded. "Well, before running into that bandit camp I was in Wave. My mother and I saved a family that lived in Wave when I was young, or rather, younger. So when I heard about the rumors I had to check in on them. When I arrived, they were going to execute a man named Kaiza, but I stopped the execution. When I took Kaiza to his home, I learned that he was newly married into the family I rescued years back." Haku's eyebrow rose at the 'newly' part. "Tsunami's first husband died shortly after their son was born." Haku nodded for me to continue. "But yeah, after that happened I went and found Gatō's main hideout. I cleared out all of the hired thugs and killed Gatō, ended up saving a bunch of enslaved women as well." I reached into my robes and pulled out my pendant to show to Haku. "Before I left, one of the girls I saved came up and gave me this. She said everyone she could ask helped pay for it."

Haku looked at the pendant and his eyes widened, "This pendant looks quite expensive."

"Almost stupidly so," I said. "But I'm thankful for it."

Haku smiled. "So noble, Tomiko-chan."

"You're too pretty to be smiling so much," I grumbled.

"I think it's time for you to go to bed, Tomiko-chan." Haku was trying not to blush.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said standing up and stretching. "See you in the morning, Senpai."

"Sleep well, Tomiko-chan."

 ** _TLA_**

Waking up, I yawned and stretched before throwing on my robes. But before leaving my tent, I paused. Something wasn't right, it was too quiet.

Quietly peeling back the entrance of my tent, my eyes quickly found what was wrong. Sprinting from the tent, I ran up to the bodies of Zabuza and Haku.

"No, no, no, no ,no," I said dropping next to them. "Shishou! Senpai! What…what happened?" I started to look around frantically as panic began to rise into my chest. Just as I was about to let out a scream, I stopped.

"You!" I screamed at the man hidden in the trees.

It was _him._ The masked man.

Before it even registered, I found myself charging blindly at him. He easily dodged my messy swings, and backhanded me away.

"Silly Tomiko," he said in a distorted voice. As I was still laid upon the ground, he walked up to me with my sword in hand. _'How did he get that…?'_ "You should really listen to your mother. After all, a swordsman should never lose his or her sword. It could be the last thing they ever do." He chuckled darkly as he brought down my own sword to end my life.

I screamed.

 ** _TLA_**

"Tomiko!"

My eyes snapped open.

Suddenly I found my tent being blown away, and Haku-senpai was at my side. Shishou's sword was out and he was looking around threateningly.

"What's wrong Tomiko-chan," Haku asked. "Are you all right?"

"Haku-senpai, Shishou…I—Nightmare…" I said bringing my knee's up to my body. I saw Zabuza-shishou place his sword back onto his back and cross his arms and walk closer. Haku-senpai grabbed ahold of me and pulled me into a hug.

"That was quite the scream," Shishou said. "We thought you were being attacked.

"I'm sorry." I said, panic dancing across my eyes.

"Tomiko-chan," Senpai said. "You appear to be quite shaken by your nightmare, would you want to tell us about it?"

"I...was waking up," I began. "But I noticed something was wrong, and when I looked outside of the tent you were…"

"We were?" Haku-senpai asked gently.

"Dead."

I could feel Haku look over his shoulder. "We were dead?" Zabuza asked. He was closer this time.

"Yes," I said. "I sprinted from the tent and fell to my knees after reaching you. I panicked. We just agreed to travel together and you were just gone. Memories that could have happened would never come to be. I was about to scream out, but before I could…before…" I was shaking at this point and Haku hugged me tighter.

"Before you could?" He asked softly, gently pushing me to continue.

"Before I could I saw _him_ in the trees."

"Him?" Both Zabuza and Haku asked this time.

"The masked man." I felt Haku look over his shoulder again. "Before I could even think of anything I charged at him and started swinging my sword, but the swings were sloppy. He dodged all of them and batted me away like it was nothing. Then he walked up to me while I was still on the ground. I don't know how, but he had my katana somehow. Then he said something…"

"What did he say, Tomiko-chan?"

"He said, 'You should really listen to your mother. After all, a swordsman should never lose his or her sword. It could be the last thing they ever do.' Then he brought my sword down and I woke up."

I was still shaking and Haku-senpai was rubbing small circles on my back.

"Wasn't I the one who said that?" Zabuza asked.

I looked up to look at his face. His eyebrows were scrunched together and I could see his frown through his face wrappings. "Yes but, my mother said the same exact thing while training one day," I said. "It's probably why I went into shock yesterday."

Haku suddenly stopped rubbing circles, and Zabuza's eyes widened a fraction. For a second, I thought I saw guilt cross his face, but it was gone as quickly as I saw it.

Haku then pulled away to look at me. His eyes were slightly moist, concern showing heavily on his face. "Are you going to be okay, Tomiko-chan?"

"Yeah," I said. "I just thought I was going to lose you two, before I got to even know you."

Haku gave me the most sincere smile I've ever seen. "Don't worry Tomiko-chan. I won't die just yet, so don't go thinking that you'll lose me that easily. And as your senpai, that's a promise I'm not going to break."

This time I pulled him into a hug. "Thank you, Senpai."

Suddenly I felt a firm, yet oddly reassuring grip on my shoulder. Looking up I saw Zabuza-shishou looking down at me.

"Kid," he said. And with just one word, all of the fear and worry I was felt melted away. "I promise you, I will NEVER let that nightmare become a reality."

To Haku-senpai's amusement, and Zabuza-shishou's horror, I leapt up and began hugging him.

 _'Thank you Shishou…Senpai. You have no idea how much your words mean to me.'_

 **Author's Notes:**

[04/05/18] Just a little bit of tidying up still.

Hello! I am back for another chapter. I hope you somewhat liked it. If not, I apologize. Maybe you'll like the next one?

I was thinking that I'd be able to go through the entire apprenticeship but then all that happened. So the yearlong apprenticeship will be the next chapter and then Tomiko will arrive at her designated village! If not, the apprenticeship will be the next two chapters. It really depends on how much I want to put into her relationship with Zabuza, Haku, and the Demon Brothers.

If you think Zabuza was OOC, I don't know about that. I kinda like him being a scary killing monster, but a soft, mushy, cuddly bear on the inside. Fufufu...So Tomiko's and Zabuza's relationship will be like that.

Until next time!


	7. Decisions

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:7 Decisions

A month has passed since I began my apprenticeship under Zabuza-shishou and it's been…well…

"If you don't move faster Tomiko, I'm going to hit you with these kunai!"

Sadistic…

"You're really sadistic, you know that Shishou?" I screamed while ducking under a handful of kunai, which by the way, are NOT blunt.

"Tomiko," Shishou said lazily. "My moniker is _Demon_ of the Mist, I think that entitles me to be a little sadistic."

"But you're like a soft, warm, and cuddly bear on the inside," I shouted. "That's like, the biggest oxymoron to your outside!"

"Keep that up and I'll have Haku throw at you instead!"

" _NO!_ " Haku and I shouted at the same time.

"Well you two are just no fun," Shishou was pouting.

"Whenever you make me throw at Tomiko-chan," Haku said. "You make me run with her if I don't hit her enough times."

"Yeah," I said. "And whenever he does hit me it's on a pressure point or something. That hurts, ya know! I think I like being hit more by kunai than senbon!"

"It's not like I'm trying to hurt you on purpose Tomiko-chan," Haku said.

I stopped running by this point and turned a pouting lip towards Haku, "But Ku-senpai," I said. "If you didn't want them to hurt you could aim for a meatier part."

"But then I wouldn't get any practice innnn~," he said playfully. In the background I could hear Zabuza-shishou trying to get our attention. "Besides, I only hit you close to one out of fifty times, maybe less."

"Do you know how fast one out of fifty times happe—"I stopped mid-sentence to pull out my sword and deflect the swing from Shishou's sword.

"That was quicker than usual," he said. His voice sounded oddly dangerous. "I do have a bit of advice for you and Haku, though."

"Yes Zabuza-shishou(sama)?" We asked.

His next word was filled with venomous killing intent, which even I could feel considering he's had the chance to practice using it on someone who is practically immune to it unless they truly are a demon.

" _Run._ "

And oh how we did.

While Ku-kun and I ran for our lives, I could see Gōzu and Meizu off to the side laughing their assess off. The current situation made me think of the time I first met them.

 ** _TLA_**

 _"Gōzu! Meizu! We're back," Shishou shouted as we made our way into a clearing. "And there is someone I'd like to introduce you to. So get your lazy assess out here!"_

 _"Yes Zabuza-sama," I heard two voices say. As they came into view I took in their appearances. They were roughly the same height, wore rebreathers on their faces, and dressed nearly identical. I'd take a guess that they were twins, and they would be pretty difficult to tell apart if their hair styles were so drastically different._

 _"Oh who is this?" The one with shaggy hair asked. The way he was looking at me made me feel uncomfortable. "A new toy? Quite young for you though, Zabuza-sama."_

 _"Quiet you imbecile," the one with slicker hair said. "Do not disrespect Zabuza-sama in such a manner. She is probably a toy for Haku, the boy will be getting to that age soon after all."_

 _I could tell Shishou and Senpai were getting agitated by their bickering._

 _"Ne, Haku," the shaggy one said while boring his eyes into me. "She's rather cute for her age; will probably become quite the woman when she gets older. I'm not saying I'm into child molestation or anything, but being on the road for so long with no women to interact with can get pretty lonely. Think you could share? I can't help but to think of what she'll sound like when she screams."_

 _When he finished speaking, the area around us easily dropped twenty degrees. The twins visibly paled and Haku-senpai tensed up beside me._

 _"I have some advice for you two idiots," Zabuza-shishou said._

 _"Y-yes, Zabuza-sama?" The twins asked._

 _In an instant, Zabuza-shishou was baring down on them with his sword swinging. "Run!"_

 _And they did._

 ** _TLA_**

While walking back into camp, I couldn't help but chuckle at Ku-senpai's limping gait.

"Tomiko-chan," he said pouting at me. "Did you really have to trip me?"

"Ku-senpaiiii~," I said in a cheery voice. "To get away from a monster, all you have to do is run faster than the person behind youuu~"

A chill ran down my spine when a firm hold fell upon my shoulder. "Tomiko," Shishou's voice rang out. "Do you really believe that I was trying?"

"Heh…" I said fidgeting with the collar of my jacket. "No, shishou."

"Damn straight kid," he said laughing. "Compared to me, you and Haku are like gnats!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Shishou." I said waving my hand at him.

"Are you getting mouthy with me, brat?"

"Er, no shishou." I smiled at him and he rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," he said. Getting back into our camp, Shishou sat down near the campfire. "All right brats, take a seat. That includes you, Gōzu…Meizu!"

"Oi!" They shouted off in the distance at the same time.

"You heard me!" And suddenly they appeared.

Sitting down, we patiently waited for his next words to come.

"All right," he finally said. "It's been a month since Tomiko has joined us. This time has been allotted to allow her to adjust to the way we work. And even if you haven't had enough time to adjust yet, Tomiko, too damn bad brat because we're moving on." I twitched an eye at him. "We've gone a few months without taking missions, and this last month has caused our funds to drop extremely low. So from now on, we'll be going back to travelling for work. No more pussy-footing around, understand? Especially you, Meizu!"

We all nodded, Meizu was probably nodding fast enough to give himself whiplash.

"Great," Shishou drawled on. "Luckily, I already have a mission lined up for us that is from The Land of Caves; it will be happening here shortly."

"But Zabuza-sama," Haku said. "The Land of Caves is on the far side of The Land of Wind, if the mission is supposed to be happening soon, won't we be late?"

"The Land of Caves is indeed on the far side of The Land of Wind," he said. "Currently we are near the border between the Land of Wind and The Land of Fire. That means if we want to be on time…we haul ass. And I mean _now_."

Within a few seconds, the camp was cleared and we were on our way to The Land of Caves.

 ** _TLA_**

"Shishou," I said looking over to Zabuza. We now just reached the border between The Land of Fire and The Land of Caves and began setting up camp for the night. "When is this mission supposed to be happening?"

"Tomorrow."

"Is the mission not happening inside the country then?"

Shishou paused for a moment before answering. "You're pretty perceptive, brat. But yeah, the mission will be happening just outside the country's border."

"What will we be doing?"

He began to grumble under his breath, but I was able to catch the words 'brat' and 'nosey', I puffed out my lower lip as he gave me a blank stare. "Nosey brat…" He grumbled again. "But whatever, now is a better time than never I guess. Haku, Gōzu, and Meizu mission briefing!"

They all appeared within seconds.

"Now," Shishou began. "Tomorrow we will be intercepting a Wind Country caravan leaving The Land of Caves early in the morning. We are to retrieve a set of documents that were stashed inside one of their wagons, apparently some political shit, and take them to the Caves capitol where we will rendezvous with some high class political figure. No one is to know who attacked the caravan, so there will be no _witnesses_ left, understand?"

"Shishou," I said anxiously. "What kind of caravan will we be 'attacking'?"

"A regular trader's caravan."

"But Shishou," I said, a hint of worry to my tone. "Those caravans are usually made up of just civilians. They have no idea what kind of information they're blindly carrying around. We're just going to be attacking a group of innocent people travelling home; to their families, friend's or loved one's!"

Haku-senpai gave me a worried look while Shishou chuckled a little too darkly for my liking. "Well get used to it brat, because these are the sort of missions we do!"

"Well decline it or something!" I said pleadingly. "We could look for protection missions or something; I can't just stand back and watch a group of innocents get slaughtered!"

Zabuza-shishou turned a dark look to me. "Listen to me brat, and listen closely," he said. "I am Zabuza Momochi, the Bloody Demon of the fucking Mist, A-ranked missing-nin. Do you really think some slouch is going to hire a _missing-nin_ to do some 'holy-thou-art' mission? Fuck. No."

"But…"

Shishou sighed before continuing. "Kid, the world doesn't work through rose-colored glasses. I am seen as a bad guy, the guys that hire good guys are scared of bad guys, which is why I get these 'go slaughter them all' and return missions. When push comes to shove, these missions are the ones that feed us. So we do them or starve. You better get that through your head quickly, Tomiko, or you're not going to be around long. Do you understand?"

"Understood Shishou..."

 ** _TLA_**

Morning came and I'm not really looking forward to what's to come. I know, I _know_ the reasoning behind all of this but it just doesn't sit right with me.

"Shishou," I said. "I don't know about this."

Zabuza inhaled and exhaled slowly before responding. "We already discussed this, Tomiko. And it's too late to be going back because here they come."

Looking to the direction that Shishou was, I could see the wagons beginning to come over the horizon.

"Haku, Meizu, Gōzu, let's go."

 _'I can't let this happen, come on Tomiko! Think of something…think…th—OH!'_

"Wait!" I shouted, running back up to them.

"Damn it brat!" Shishou turned to me. "Don't be so damn loud, you'll give us away!"

I started rubbing the back of my head, "Heh, sorry about that."

"What is it Tomiko-chan?" Senpai asked.

"I think I have a way to get the documents without getting noticed."

"What would that be, kid?" Meizu grunted. "It'd just be faster to clear them out."

"Well I could put a genjutsu on the group and then use my dōjutsu to locate the documents without any bloodshed. Plus, with the genjutsu none of the civilians would be able to tell that we're even there."

"Kid, as impressive as you might be, I know you lack the ability to throw a genjutsu large enough for the group." Shishou said.

"But I know someone who can! Well actually a lot of someone's who can but just one 'someone' will be coming." I started to smile when everyone turned a quizzical brow to me.

 _'I swear I'm not crazy…'_

"Just trust me, okay? I got this!"

Shishou looked to the approaching group, then back to me. "Fine, brat. But make it quick."

"Thank you, Shishou," I said slicing my thumb. Flying through the appropriate hand signs, I placed my hand on the ground. _'They probably won't be impressed with the way you look, but you'll prove them wrong!'_ "Summoning Jutsu!"

In a small puff a smoke appeared my selected summon.

"Hello Tomiko-sama," the small voice said.

…

Meizu instantly began to laugh.

"How unimpressive," Gōzu drawled.

"It's so cute," Senpai coo'd.

"Brat," Shishou said. "We'll be discussing the reasons you hid the ability to summon later. Just what in the name of Kami is that?"

I sighed. "Everyone, this is Yuuto-kun. Yuuto-kun, these people are my current companions."

Yuuto looked at them all before looking back to me. "Tomiko-sama," he said. "You're travelling with some scary people. Except that one," he was pointing at Meizu. "That one looks like an idiot."

A pause.

"I look like a what!? I could smash you between my fingers you little insect! How dare you tr—"Meizu went silent all of a sudden and I chuckled.

"What in the world?" Gōzu said looking to his brother.

"At least he shut up," Zabuza-shishou said. "But what just happened?"

"Yuuto-kun happened."

"Just a small genjutsu," Yuuto said. "Besides, it's what he gets for calling me an insect. I am no insect, I am an arachnid."

Zabuza-shishou began to laugh. "Oh that's great," he bellowed. "We might need you to summon this one more frequently."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, yeah Shishou," I said. "Would you like to hear what I have planned now?"

"Sure brat, go on."

I stuck my tongue out. "Oh, and Yuuto-kun, it would probably be best to undo Meizu-teme's genjutsu now. Don't want him to get lost or anything."

"As you wish, Tomiko-sama," Yuuto said glancing back over at Meizu.

"—y to belittle…! What the fuck just happened?"

"That little 'insect', as you called him, just put your ass in a genjutsu strong enough to make you silent." Gōzu said. "We all enjoyed it really."

"Hey you ass," Meizu said to his twin. "Why didn't you help me?"

"I do believe you said you could 'smash him' between your fingers?"

" _Enough_." Shishou said. "Tomiko, please say what you're going to do before these two idiots give me a headache."

"Er, right," I said rubbing the back of my head. "So as I was saying, this is Yuuto, he's a widow spider. In the spider clan, the widow spiders specialize in both poisons and genjutsu, though two branches prefer one over the other. Black widows prefer poison specialization and brown widows prefer genjutsu specialization. So in this case, Yuuto is a brown widow; he specializes in genjutsu. In fact, the widow spiders believe he'll grow to be one of the strongest genjutsu users in their kin's history. I know I'm not able to cast a genjutsu that's large enough, but Yuuto-kun will certainly be able to. I was thinking that Yuuto could throw a genjutsu to camouflage us all, and then when we get close enough to the caravan he'll throw another genjutsu to make the caravan oblivious to its surroundings. Think you could do that, Yuuto-kun?"

"It would be hatchling's play, Tomiko-sama," he said while crawling up to my shoulder.

I stroked his abdomen before smiling. "Great," I said. "Do you have any issues with that, Shishou?"

Zabuza crossed his arms while thinking, "I suppose not, no. Go ahead brat."

"Do your thing, Yuuto-kun!"

"By your command, Tomiko-sama."

Within moments, Yuuto-kun began making clicking noises with his fangs and began the genjutsu.

"What's he doing?" Meizu asked.

"Spiders have a separate language they speak when using any form of jutsu," I said as we began making our way to the caravan. "It was originally decided to be that way so other summoning clans couldn't steal their techniques. Now it's just tradition."

"Can you speak in that language, Tomiko-chan?" Senpai asked.

"Physically I cannot, because I lack fangs," I said sagely. "But I can understand what is being said. If I do want to 'say' something to them in that language, I would need to use random objects to make tapping or clicking noises with; to match different pitches or frequencies."

We stopped approaching within fifty yards of the caravan.

"Shishou," I said.

"Yeah?" He grunted.

"What kind of information is within the documents?"

"They're supposed to have some form of agreement in them."

"So possibly, terms and conditions for an alliance or something similar?" I asked concentrating on the caravan.

"They could be something like that, we weren't given specifics," he turned to me with a risen brow. "Why are you asking?"

"If I get a general understanding for what I'm looking for, I can use the Īgurubijon and locate the item or items we're looking for without having to search too hard for it."

"I see," he said. "Well get going then, because we don't have forever."

"Yes, yes," I said waving my hand at him. "Yuuto-kun, are you ready for the other genjutsu?"

"I'm already on it, Tomiko-sama."

"Let me know when you're ready, and then we'll approach,"

"We can approach them now if you'd like, Tomiko-sama."

I looked to the rest of the group and they nodded.

Approaching the caravan slowly, I could tell that they were oblivious to the situation, as they continued to talk amongst themselves in a loud manner.

"These idiots are just asking to get attacked," Gōzu said.

"Look at this," Meizu coo'd. "Some of them are even ninja and are still oblivious."

"I'll give it to you, Yuuto-san," Senpai said. "Your genjutsu must be very good."

"Of course it is," Yuuto said. "I'm one of the best in the clan, if not already the best."

"As entertaining it is to watch these schmucks," Shishou said. "I would like to get the documents and leave before I start getting too _bored_. If you know what I mean Tomiko."

"Gotcha!" I said activating my dōjutsu.

Looking around, it wasn't too hard to find what we came for. Quickly heading towards the back of the caravan, I leapt into the wagon that the golden glow was coming from.

"Here they are," I said leaping back out of the wagon.

"Are you sure we can't just kill some of them?" Meizu whined. "I'm getting bored."

"No," Shishou said. "As fun as it would be to stain the ground red, this way does make it less of a hassle. Now since we have the documents, let's get going. Tomiko, have your summon drop the genjutsu when we're over the border."

"Yes, Zabuza-sama(shishou)!" We said in unison.

 ** _TLA_**

It didn't take too long to cross into Caves' Country. I wasted no time afterwards, and let Yuuto-kun return to Kumonosu Valley.

When we reached the Capitol, I had to pause for a second because I've never witnessed anything as magnificent. It made me hope that normal hidden villages weren't like this because honestly, I'd get too distracted.

Finding this 'political figure' wasn't too difficult either, but he was definitely shady.

Apparently the documents we picked up were treaty agreements between The Land of Caves and The Land of Wind.

Hopefully this won't come back to bite anyone in the future.

 ** _TLA_**

A couple of more months passed, and we found ourselves traveling towards The Land of Water. The current situation is really sucky because not only do I really dislike the area, Zabuza-shishou, Gōzu, and Meizu-teme are missing-nin. So, the chances of us getting on a boat out of The Land of Water quickly are slim.

"Hey brat," I heard Shishou call for me.

Walking to him I looked to him quizzically, "Yes Shishou?"

"When are you going to tell me about your Summoning Contract? And why wasn't Haku surprised like the rest of us when you summoned Yuuto?"

…

"You're now just asking me about that?" I asked blankly.

"I thought you were going to tell me," he said turning to me. "I didn't think I'd have to ask for information about it."

"You literally said we'd discuss it after that one mission in The Land of Caves," I said raising my brow. "That practically means you'd be bringing it up again."

"Did I now?" Shishou's words were beginning to get a certain ring to them.

"I—Uh…" I started to whistle. "Hey Shishou, do you want to learn about my Summoning Contract now?"

I could see him smiling. "I thought you'd never ask, brat."

I rolled my eyes at him. "So what do you want to know?"

"Well," he began. "Why wasn't Haku surprised?"

"When I first became your apprentice, I was talking about myself and it just came up."

"I see."

"Yep! So, what do you want to know about the spiders?"

"Everything would be nice."

"That's rather vague, Shishou," I said. He just continued to stare at me blankly. "Fiiiine, jeeze. Okay, so do you remember how I said Yuuto was a widow spider?" To that question he nodded. "Well there are six total families that make-up the entire clan and specialize in their own areas, trapdoor spiders; traps and ambushes, huntsman spiders; quick and agile combat, jumping spiders; reconnaissance and tracking, tarantulas; combat tanks, orb-weaver spiders; medical ninjutsu, and of course the widow spiders; poisons and genjutsu. Like I said with Yuuto and the widow spiders in the past, each family is also made up of different species, so the clan is rather massive."

"So none of them specialize in ninjutsu or fūinjutsu?" Shishou asked.

I shook my head. "No, they don't," I shrugged. "I'm not really sure why, though. Ninjutsu and fūinjutsu just might not be their cup of tea."

"I see," he said. "Well that's interesting I suppose. Are they all as small as Yuuto was? I can't imagine them being that useful otherwise."

Shishou's comment made me laugh just thinking of Jiji. "Oh dear no," I chuckled. "They come in a variety of sizes. Some, like the jumping spiders, are usually small. Now the orb-weavers and trapdoor spiders can get as big as or bigger than most adult humans, but the huntsman spiders, widow spiders, and tarantulas can be… _big_. Like huge. I can't even begin to tell you how big Jiji is!"

"Jiji?" Shishou asked.

"Oh," I said smiling. "Jiji's name is Daichi-sama! He is the 'boss spider' of the clan, and a tarantula. I think he told me once that he's specifically a goliath birdeater, but he's massive. There are a few more spiders that are almost as big as he is, but he's definitely the biggest."

"Well I've heard how big the boss summons can be," Shishou said. "But I've only heard about the toads, slugs, snakes, and salamanders from the Second Shinobi World War."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah Jiji says most people only know of them as well. I think the spiders are the coolest, though."

Shishou laughed, "They're your summons, so of course you think that."

I puffed my cheeks out. "Even if they weren't I would!"

He placed a hand on my head before chuckling, "Well thanks for telling me, kid."

"Awwh," I coo'd. "Is Shishou getting all sentimental on me?"

He grunted in response. "Whatever, _brat_. Just go get ready, we're almost to the mainland."

I smiled at him, "Yes, Shishou!"

 ** _TLA_**

Not even one hour into hitting the mainland and I can't even…

"Zabuza Momochi," one of the men in front of us said. "We are here to escort you and your party to Mei-sama. It would be best for all of us to head there immediately; the Mizukage's dogs could be lurking anywhere."

"Oh?" Shishou said lifting a brow. "It was so nice of her to send a welcoming committee, but tough shit boys; we're leaving this shit hole of a country as soon as possible. And I could care less about Yagura's cronies, I could handle those weaklings in my sleep."

"We were told to take you back with us at any cost," another man said. "We wouldn't want the children with you to get injured, so we're asking you to come with us peacefully."

At that comment Haku-senpai and I looked at each other and the other three started to laugh.

"Oh please," Shishou said wiping a 'tear' from his eye. "These two can handle themselves. I'm actually positive that they can take you on."

The men ahead of us tensed before the first one spoke again. "If that's the way you want it," he said pulling out a sword. "Then we'll have to take you by force."

Sure, they seemed to be pulling a brave face, but I could tell they were all very scared. I mean, this is Zabuza Momochi we're talking about.

"This is great!" Meizu was laughing. "We haven't had any fun in ages!"

"I'll actually agree with you on this, Meizu," Shishou said pulling out Kubikiribōchō. "Let's have some _fun_."

I could feel the tension in the air begin to rise as our two groups stared each other down. But just as the tension was about to reach its climax, a wave of lava came rushing between us.

"My, my, my," came an oddly familiar voice. "Getting playful are we, Zabuza?"

"Mei Terumī has decided to grace us with her presence." Shishou said sarcastically. "For what do we owe the honor?"

Mei laughed before responding, "Now, now, Zabuza," she said. "I did not come to fight with you. The party I sent was just running late and I came to check on them, that's all. But now that I'm her—"Mei stopped her sentence after her gaze fell upon me.

I was glomped within seconds.

"Well if it isn't Tomiko-chan," she purred. "What are doing travelling with this character?"

"The kid's my apprentice," Zabuza-shishou said.

"Apprentice?" Mei actually looked surprised, as did the rest of Mei's group. Then she smiled, "Getting soft hearted are we?"

"Soft hearted my ass," Shishou drawled. "I could tell the brat was good, is all."

"Oh I'm sure," Mei said as she began to…stroke my hair.

My eye began to twitch.

"Can we stop with the hair stroking?" I asked, Mei laughed.

"How do you know the brat, Mei?"

"Oooh, getting defensive are we?" Mei laughed again. "Also Tomiko, I'm a little hurt. You never talked about me?" She was pouting.

"It, uh—it never came up?" I said rubbing the back of my head.

"Mei-sama," I heard someone say. Looking towards the voice, I recognized him as Mei's right-hand. Ao I think? "We have further engagements today," Mei seemed to get a dark look in her eye. "If we don't hurry, we could be late." I could hear Mei mumbling 'Late to the engagement?' under her breath as she slowly walked towards Ao.

"Shut up," she whispered. "Or I'll kill you."

Ao face flushed. "I didn't say anything bad, ma'am!"

Mei then looked back to us with a cheery face. "So what do you say, Zabuza? Come back to our camp, we can have a little chat about how I met Tomiko-chan, and I can ask you about my proposition."

"Proposition?" Shishou asked. "What proposition?"

"You'll only hear of Mei-sama's proposals if you come back to the camp, I'm afraid." Ao said, and again Mei got that weird look in her eye. "If not, you'll just miss out." He began to turn around before Mei approached him.

"Shut up," she whispered once more. "Or I'll kill you."

"But why!?"

 _'I don't remember them acting like this last time…but I could have been just ignoring it…'_

"So, Zabuza? Coming back to camp?"

Shishou let out an agitated sigh before responding, "Fine, whatever. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can leave."

"Splendid." Mei said clapping her hands together. "I'll lead the way then."

And so we followed.

 ** _TLA_**

The camp is the same as I remembered it, but located in a different location. I guess this was done to keep Yagura and his people on their toes.

I can tell that Mei is highly respected; everyone appears to smile and bow when she walks by.

"And here we are," Mei said gesturing to the Commander's tent. "Let's all get comfy, hmm?"

She went ahead and walked inside and the rest of us just looked at each other.

"I can already tell this is going to be annoying," Shishou sighed while heading inside.

"I just hope we get to kill people," Meizu said excitedly.

"You're annoying," Gōzu drawled, following behind his brother.

"After you, Tomiko-chan," Haku-senpai said while pulling the tents entrance to the side.

"Thank you, Senpai!" I chirped.

Getting inside I can see Mei, Zabuza-shishou and the rest seated around a large table.

"Tomiko-chan," Mei said patting the seat next to her. "I saved a seat just for you, my darling."

"Thank you," I said hesitantly while walking over to her.

After sitting down she put the back of her arm on my chair and started rubbing my hair again. I stared blankly at Shishou as he appeared to be mocking me, which I decided to stick my tongue out to.

"Now that we're all situated," Mei said. "Would you like to ask your questions, Zabuza?"

"Yeah," he grunted. "How do you know the brat?"

"She helped us out a little while ago," Mei said. "We took out one of Yagura's supply troughs."

Shishou raised his brow to that and looked at me. "What were you doing in The Land of Water?"

I blushed when everyone looked to me for my answer. "I travelled through after leaving The Land of Honey. I was honestly trying to get out as soon as possible, because I really don't like it here; no offense Mei-sama."

"None taken, darling." She smiled.

"Right," I said scratching my nose nervously. "But I ended up stumbling upon Mei-sama's group while trying to find a boat and decided to help. When we took out the trough, she asked if I wanted to stay and I declined. They helped me get a ship to the mainland though, so that was great."

"That's right," he said. "You never have liked this country, have you? Why is that?"

"She never told you?" Mei asked.

"Well, I sorta told them?" I said hesitantly. "Not the details though."

Shishou raised a brow.

"I told you before that my clan was killed by a man in an orange mask," to that he nodded. "It was in this country that they were slaughtered."

His eyes softened a bit, "That would make sense then," he said. "When Yagura began his anti-kekkei genkai shit, a lot of the crazy ones took the movement beyond The Land of Water. So when we found you in The Land of Fire, I didn't actually think this was where you were from."

"That's strange," Mei said. "I've never heard of or witnessed any man with an orange mask. I don't think he's one of Yagura's men, or we certainly would have met him by now."

"Then what would someone want with the brat's clan?" Shishou asked. To his question, the people in the room looked to me and I looked down and away.

"Tomiko-chan," Senpai said softly. "If you're not comfortable talking about it, you don't have to."

"No," I said. "It's all right."

"Take your time," Mei whispered to me. "No one wants to force you to do anything."

I smiled softly before looking back up to Shishou and the rest of the room. "My mother once told me what happened to the clan," I began. "But I discovered more of the truth the day she passed. There is a journal my clan used to document its travels and events. While travelling through The Land of Water they heard about what was going on, and actually went to investigate. When the investigation team came back, the clan leader at the time, my father, decided that the Mizukage was too corrupt. After he made that decision, he and the clan elders began planning the assassination of the Mizukage; Yagura."

After the last sentence, the room sat in silence until Shishou gave out a low whistle, "Damn kid," he said. "Your clan had balls."

"It's certainly a decision you can be proud of," Mei said.

"Yeah," I said lowly. "But it was during that time they were approached by the masked man. The journal said that he somehow he knew about the plans, even though the clan should have been the only ones. He left after giving my father a day to reconsider, but we know how that turned out. The last thing in the journal said that they'd wait for the assassination team to return before leaving the country."

I heard someone scoff, and shot the man a deadly look. "Your clan must not have been that mighty if it fell defeated to one lone man."

Within seconds he was blown out of the tent by a shot of lava.

"I will return in a moment," Mei said in a deadly tone while heading towards the exit. "Stay put, Zabuza"

Shishou was currently on his feet with Kubikiribōchō in his hand, and growling. It kind of makes me happy seeing his reaction to that stupid man's words.

Outside the tent we could hear a man screaming.

It was shortly followed by silence and Mei's return.

"Sorry about that," she said sitting down.

"I would have gutted him like a pig," Shishou growled.

"Yes, yes," Mei said waving her hand to him. "And you would have made a right mess with it. The way I do it, he just simply doesn't exist anymore."

Haku glanced towards me nervously, I shrugged.

"Thank you for sticking up for me, Mei-sama," I said simply.

"It was no problem, darling," she said as she began running her fingers through my hair again.

Haku stifled a giggle.

"Now where were we," Mei hmm'd. "I'd love to find out who this masked man is, or was, we have no way of knowing if he's still alive."

"True," Shishou growled. "But I hope he is. I'd like to make it rain with his blood," he finished darkly.

"Well actually," I said. "The journal states that the masked man revealed himself to be Madara Uchiha."

A hushed silence fell upon the others.

"What?!" The room cascaded into panic.

"That's impossible!" Someone shouted.

"It also continued—" I started.

"I thought he was killed by Hashirama?"

"—to state that my—"

"That fence sitter Ōnoki is still alive, you never know!"

"—father detected the lie—"

" _Silence!"_ Mei hollered. "If you would keep listening and stop acting like child imbeciles! Tomiko-chan, please continue."

"As I was trying to say," I coughed awkwardly. "My father detected that the man was lying, so whoever the man is, is just using the name but is still believed to be an Uchiha. Sorry I didn't say anything before, it slipped my mind."

"It slipped your mind that your clan may have been attacked by one of the strongest shinobi to ever walk the planet?" Shishou rolled his eyes. "Only you would let something like that slip your mind, brat."

I chuckled nervously.

"I will have to decide on what to do with this new information later," Mei said looking to Zabuza. "But I believe it's time for you to hear my proposition."

"Get on with it then," he said lazily.

Mei clicked her tongue, "Your tone will get you into trouble one of these days." She laughed, Shishou rolled his eyes.

 _'These two bring out so much sassiness in the other it's ridiculous…'_

"Now how to put this," Mei placed her free hand's index finger on her chin. "Zabuza, and company of course, I want you to join the rebellion."

"No."

"So quick to shoot me down," Mei was pouting. "You wound me Zabuza, you really do."

"With all due respect, Mei- _sama_ ," Shishou drawled out. "None of us really want to be here. Why do you think we'd want to stay and help?"

"What if I had something to offer?" To that, Shishou raised a brow. "And even if I didn't have something to offer, you're in my camp surrounded by thousands of my loyal followers. Do you really think you could leave without my blessing?"

Everyone tensed at her words, Mei laughed it off.

"I'm merely joking," she laughed a little more. "I just wanted to see how you'd all react."

"Now it's you who wounds us, Mei-sama," I said pouting with my lower lip.

"I am so sorry, Tomiko-chan," she said looking to me with a playful look. "Will you ever find it within your heart to forgive me?"

"Dear Kami, this is sickening," Shishou said with a 'humph'. "Can you just get on with it you damn woman?"

"Words, Zabuza," Mei said. "But like I said, I would like for you all to assist in the rebellion against the Yondaime Mizukage. Personally, I think this Civil War could last another several years, but with your help I can imagine it ending quicker. Imagine the fear it could strike into the hearts of Yagura's men if they heard 'The Demon of the Mist' has returned?"

"I can see how that would normally catch my attention," Shishou said. "But what do you _really_ have to offer?"

"You dislike the country so much that easy blood won't make you stay? I'm shocked," Mei laughed. "But I do suppose everyone needs a little more in these harsh times. Very well, for your time and efforts, which I am humbly asking for only six months, if I were to become Mizukage after the rebellion I will remove you, Meizu, and Gōzu from The Land of Water's Bingo Books. After that, I will also revoke your missing nin status. And because I am a kind woman, I will also allow you choose what you will with your own lives."

"What do you mean by that?" Meizu asked. Shishou looked curious as well.

"I won't be forcing you to return to the Mist," Mei said. "I will allow you to choose what you want to do. You could come back to the Mist, join another village, or just roam freely. With your missing nin statuses revoked, you could choose any of those without worrying about Kiri Hunters."

"How about that!" Meizu sounded happy? That's certainly a first. "Think of the freedom."

"For once I will calmly agree with you, brother," Gōzu said calmly. "What are your thoughts, Zabuza-sama?"

"I'm not too sure," Shishou said plainly.

"Oh Zabuza, darling," Mei said pleasantly. "I haven't even said the best part yet."

To that, Zabuza-shishou narrowed his eyes.

"Let's say you help us for the six months I am asking you for," Mei said leaning onto the table with an elbow. "And then after we win, you decide to not reside within Kiri as a ninja. If that were to happen, I would allow you to leave with Kubikiribōchō still in your possession."

Shishou's eyes widened a fraction.

"Mei-sama!" Some of the men in the room sounded exasperated at such a thought.

After the outburst, Ao decided to speak up. "With all due respect, Mei-sama," he said. "The Kubikiribōchō is a Kirigakure heirloom! It is one of the legendary swords only to be wielded by one of its Seven Swordsman. We cannot allow it to leave!"

"Are you questioning my decision, Ao?" Mei asked with an eerie smile on her face.

"N-no ma'am," he said gulping loudly. "I just, what will we do without it?"

"That's easy," she chuckled lightly. "We find or create a new sword. A new era brings along new and exciting things after all, isn't that right Ao?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, good," she said looking back to Zabuza. "Now that all of my cards are on the table, what do you say?"

"Haku," Shishou said looking to the young boy. "What do you think of the situation?"

"I will gladly accept and follow any decision you choose, Zabuza-sama." _'You'd think Shishou would learn by now...'_

"Very well," Shishou said. "Gōzu, Meizu, what are your thoughts on this?"

"I believe the pros outweigh the cons, Zabuza-sama." Gōzu said evenly.

"Imagine all the blood we'll get to spill over the next six months!" Meizu was exited again. "We haven't had much action lately, and I'm just itching to get out there, Zabuza-sama."

With their answers heard, Shishou looked to me, "Tomiko?"

"While it is true that I dislike The Land of Water," I said. "I dislike corruption and perverse views more so. I think we should help if it leads to the country's liberation and eventual redemption, Shishou."

Mei smiled at me and I gave a small one in return.

"Well then," Shishou drawled out. "It looks like the Demon of the Mist will be making a bloody return."

Mei clasped her hands together, not even trying to hide the excitement that was beginning to show in her eyes.

"Excellent."

 **Author's Notes:**

[04/05/18] Re-reading and editing everything takes so long, oh my gosh.

So it has been...a while, and I apologize deeply for the content delay. I have recently started a new job which is taking up a lot of my time now, my fiance and I just bought a new house so we're getting everything with that situated, and of course wedding planning is in there as well. So that just leaves me time to...sleep.

But here is the new chapter, I hope it's somewhat enjoyable. I have decided that this might take a few more chapters. I don't know, I just like the extra depth and background to OCs instead of just thrusting them into the main story line. If you were looking forward to getting to the village soon, I apologize for making you wait.

P.S: Feel free by messaging me, or posting a review if you have an idea for the story! If I like it enough, it will be added to the story and a little shout out will be posted in the Author's Notes.

P.P.S: If you don't have an account and are reading on anonymously, I highly recommend making an account! Doing so will make following your favorite stories that much easier, and you can get updates via e-mail when new chapters are posted!

Until next time!


	8. Treachery

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto, or any of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story. Nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:8 Treachery

"You're certain this will work?"

"Oh please," I said waving a hand to the rebel who spoke. "Machibuse is an ambushing specialist! Trust me, this will be great."

"Mei-sama gave you leadership of this mission," he said. "I just want to make sure you know what you're doing."

I looked at him plainly and rolled my eyes. "After two months one would think a group of grown men would get over themselves. I'm young, it's whatever now."

"It will never be that simple," he said flatly. "Anyone taking orders from a child nearly three times their junior will always be cautious."

"Then someone three times my _senior_ ," I began, releasing a little bit of killing intent, "Should know that a shinobi should never be judged upon their looks. Plus, someone I know slaughtered an ENTIRE graduating class as a child, right?"

He began to pale and I laughed. "Besides, in four months' time I'll be out of your hair, happy?"

"If we're still alive by that time," he said scoffing and walking away.

I may or may not have stuck my tongue out at him…

"Tomiko-sama," a voice said from the ground below me.

"Ah, Machibuse!" I smiled cheerfully at the trapdoor spider. "How goes the plan?"

"Everything is set," he said. "The vibrations in the ground showed that there are a total of five scouts, I used that information to map out the pits and match their travelling formation. As long as they don't change it, they should all fall through at the same time. Once they hit the webbing, it should paralyze them and I will bind them for travel."

"They won't even know what hit them!" I cheered. "Thank you, Machibuse. You're the best!"

He gave me a nod before heading back underground.

 _'So where's our prey?'_

Activating the Īgurubijon, I scanned the surrounding area looking for the enemy scouts and smiled.

 _'I love an easy job…'_

"All right everyone," I said looking to the five men Mei-sama sent with me for 'extra protection'. "The scouts Mei-sama sent us to find and capture are currently on their way. Luckily for us, we won't even have to get our hands dirty. After they crash into the pit falls—"

"Pit falls?" Someone asked interrupting me. "The plan you made was to trick chūnin to jōnin level shinobi to just fall into pit traps? That's ridiculous, they'll see it coming from a mile away."

I lifted a lone brow at him. "So you think you can plan an ambush better than Machibuse? That would risk no fatalities at all?"

"I can do better than a girl and her pet arachnid," he sneered. "Why Mai-sama entrusted this mission to a _child_ is beyond me."

I was about to retort, but he suddenly fell through the ground and I had to hold back my laughter.

"My apologies Tomiko-sama," Machibuse said looking up through the hole, "But did I hear an insect buzzing around?"

I couldn't stop the few giggles that escaped through my lips, "I think you did, Machibuse. But it's gone now."

A tint of playfulness was showing through his eyes, "Very well then, I shall return to my post."

A moment later, the man from before came shooting up through the hole bound in webbing.

"This is preposterous," another one of them said. "Mei-sama will hear of this, girl."

I just waved my hand at him. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said lazily. "She'll get it in the mission report. It will probably be just as comical then as well."

"How dare you—!"

My concentration immediately left him and went in the direction of the approaching shinobi. Putting up my hand, they all fell silent.

 _'Sure, go ahead, listen to the child when she knows danger is approaching.'_

"Enemy shinobi to arrive at trap in twenty seconds," I said looking back over my shoulder. "Once they fall in, Machibuse will bind them and send them back up."

"If it even works," I heard someone whisper.

I rolled my eyes and looked back to the clearing, "Enemy arrival in five, four, three, two…"

Just then, a group of five Kiri shinobi came dashing out of the tree line and after a moment, disappeared into the ground.

"One," I said turning a smile to the people behind me.

"I..." One started to say.

"But that…"

I started to laugh, "You all look like fish!"

They all turned their faces away to hide the oncoming blush.

"Well, might as well go and secure our cargo! Oh, and can someone untie Mr. Insect?"

I stood from my spot and began walking out into the clearing, the group of men on my heels.

"Pardon me," Mr. Insect said. "I—uh, want to apologize."

"Meh," I said waving my hand at him. "It's not a big deal. Perhaps next time you won't judge a book by its cover, ne?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Oh jeeze," I said in a disgruntled tone. "I'm nine, don't call me ma'am."

"Oh," he cleared his throat. "Sorry about that, Tomiko."

"Again, no problem." I stopped walking and looked at the five guys. "Huh."

"Is something the matter?"

"I don't know any of your names," I said smiling and rubbing the back of my head.

They all just looked at me blankly and the one I was previously talking to face palmed.

"Well then," the first one started. "I guess I'll start. My name is Hitomashi, but you may call me Hito."

I gave him a single nod and looked to the others as they spoke their names.

"Bonrou,"

"Chuu,"

"Zenji,"

"And I am Deru," the last one said. "I apologize for mocking you earlier."

"Like I said to Hito," I said while walking towards the holes once more. "No big deal."

As we reached the trap, unconscious bodies began to shoot up from the ground.

"They're all set for travel, Tomiko-sama," Machibuse said dragging the last captive above ground.

"Excellent," I said clasping my hands together. "How long will they be unconscious for?"

"For the rest of the day," he said. "But they can be woken up through force."

I smiled. "Awesome! Thank you Machibuse, you may return home now." I waved goodbye as he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Then I turned my attention to the men, "What are you guys waiting for, hmm? Pick one and carry he body!"

Bonrou sighed, "This is probably what our real purpose was for."

I laughed, "Mei-sama has a sense of humor, ne?"

"Tomiko," Hito said. I looked to him. "What did your summons do in order to drain them of their chakra so quickly?"

"Machi's webbing has the ability to drain whatever gets caught of its chakra," I began. "So he comes in handy for prisoner transportation! Fufufu!"

"Won't it drain us of our chakra then?" Chuu asked.

"Oh no," I said. "It only does that when being manipulated by Machibuse's chakra, so for now it's safe."

They appeared to be comfortable with that answer and started picking up the bodies, but shortly afterwards dropped them back to the ground as their arms fell sluggishly to their sides.

"Tomiko," Deru said flatly. "Why can't I feel my arms?"

"Oh," I said sheepishly. "I—uh, may have forgotten to tell you that the webbing is coated in a contact-based paralysis agent? And it takes time to dry and wear off? Fufufu?"

"Tomiko," they all growled at me.

"Heh," I started backing away. "Race you back to camp!"

And I was off.

"Tomiko!" I heard in the distance.

"When is this going to wear off!?"

 _'I actually don't know…fufufu…'_

 ** _TLA_**

After waiting for all the men once they…fell behind. We deposited the prisoner's at the holding cells and now stood before Mei going over the mission success.

"It was a simple mission then?" Mei asked.

"Yes Mei-sama," I said bowing. "With Machibuse's assistance we only had to bring the prisoner's back."

"That's very good," she said shooting me a smile. She then looked to the five men, "What are your opinions of Tomiko-chan now?"

They shared nervous looks amongst each other.

Mei laughed lightly, "I am not deaf nor blind, boys. I see the way people have been looking at her; I've heard what has been said. I am merely asking what you think now that you've had a chance to work with her."

Hitomashi cleared his throat. "Mei-sama," he said bowing.

"You may speak, Hitomashi."

"I will admit that I was skeptical throughout most of the mission," he said. "It is true that her age made me a little uncomfortable at first. Not many children have gone through the ranks since Zabuza. But I find that I was coming to a conclusion too quickly, and my overall opinion of the girl was a little too harsh. She is very level headed, and is able to command with authority, even for her age. The use of her summons shows her to be very knowledgeable of the resources she has available, which tells me she goes into every situation with each teammate and subordinate in mind."

"I agree with his sentiments," Deru said. "Perhaps if our men and women saw her in combat; witnessed her bleeding with us, she would not be viewed as different."

"Would it be possible to do that without the bleeding?"

Mei laughed.

"Mei-sama," Ao called walking into the room. "We were successful in waking the prisoners."

"Excellent news," Mei looked to Deru. "If everything works out for us, we may get to witness our little Tomiko-chan in action."

I pulled my hood up to cover my face, "So cruel."

"Well then," Mei said through her laughter. "You are all dismissed. Tomiko-chan, would you like to accompany me?"

"Sure," I said following her out the door. "Will you be interrogating them?"

"I was hoping you would," she said shooting me a coy smile.

I raised a brow at her.

"Tomiko-chan, you are a very gifted young lady," I blushed. "I just want to know how far your talent reaches. Can you imagine how demoralizing it will feel to be broken by a kunoichi as young as yourself? You probably have summons that are capable of breaking any seasoned shinobi. The capabilities you possess are simply astonishing."

At this point my face was hidden so far into my hood, it probably looked like I didn't have one. "Mei-sama~!" I whined sarcastically.

"You know it's true, Tomiko-chan~!" She replied in a sing songy voice.

 ** _TLA_**

We arrived at the cave that was being used to hold any of the rebellion's prisoners. The guards at the entrance bowed slightly as we walked by and Mei graced them with a smile. The inside of the cave was surprisingly well carved out and had multiple floors.

"You deserve to rot!" One of the prisoners shouted.

"Kekkei genkai traitors!" Another yelled.

"You seem to get quite the reaction," I said glancing towards Mei.

She sighed lightly. "This is what The Land of Water and Kirigakure has become. It's rather sad, don't you think? The rebels are viewed as traitors, while Yagura's hailed as a hero for slaughtering his own citizens."

"It is true Yagura's reign has brought darkness upon The Land of Water, but the tiniest amount of light can always be seen through the darkness, Mei-sama," I said turning fully towards her. "You are fighting to change The Land of Water for the better, and when you win, your light will cast out even the shadows."

"So young, yet so wise," she said giving me a smile. "If only the world could see through your eyes, Tomiko-chan. It would surely be a better place then."

We continued to walk in a comfortable silence, or what you could call a comfortable silence as the jeers and insults continued.

"And here we are," she said stopping in front of a door. She turned to me, "We believe these scouts were up to more than just a routine perimeter check. Yagura is up to something, but what of exactly we are not sure."

"So you wish for me to discover this information?" I asked.

"Right on," she smiled. "Just remember that we have four more in the reserves if this one doesn't come to be fruitful. I shall be watching from the room next door just in case anything happens; good luck my dear."

"I will do my best," I said giving her a smile and entering the room.

The room is small and square in shape. The only form of lighting came from two torches on the wall, giving the small space an eerie feeling. The rebels' prisoner is placed in the center of the room, facing away from the entrance.

"Fucking finally," he said. "I thought I was going to die of boredom."

"You're a feisty one," I said pulling a chair over to sit in front of him.

We sat in silence and looked at each other.

He laughed. "What the fuck are you doing here, brat," he asked.

I stared at him blankly, "Interrogation."

"That Mei bitch sent a child to do her work," he laughed again. "This will be great! Easiest interrogation of my life."

"Shinobi-san," I said lightly. "It's not nice to judge a book by its cover."

"Fuck you, brat. I don't have to listen to a damn thing you say."

"And here I was thinking we could have a nice chat without the usual pleasantries," I sighed.

"Like you could get a damn thing out of me," he sneered.

 _'Oh we'll see about that…Fufufu…'_

Standing up, I turned from him and pushed the chair away. After unsheathing my sword I turned to face him once more.

"Do you even know how to use that thing?" He asked mockingly.

"Quite well, thank you."

"Well bring it on bra—!"

I stabbed it through his right foot, he visibly winced.

"Was that supposed to do something," he laughed.

"I was checking to see how you would respond," I said. "You winced."

"A little poke won't hel—"

I twisted the blade, pain rolled across his face.

"You don't have high tolerance for pain, do you?"

Sweat was starting to form on his brow, giving his skin a light sheen; he was panting.

"I don't believe I have ever witnessed someone so soft to pain before."

"Stop mocking me!" He shouted.

I rolled my eyes at him. "I'm not the one who started this, Shinobi-san." I pulled my sword from his foot and lazily flicked the blood off of it. "But now that we know how things are going to be going, let's get started, shall we?"

"Fuck. You."

"You wound me so," I said placing a hand over my heart. "But tell me, Shinobi-san, why were you and your scouts so far away from Kirigakure? Your patterns matched movements for perimeter checks, but a perimeter check so far from home? Enlighten me."

He smirked. "A perimeter check? Sounds about right."

I raised a brow. "So that is what you were doing?"

"Perhaps."

I narrowed my eyes and quickly stabbed my katana through his left foot, twisting it after it sliced through.

He gave out a startled cry, "You fucking—"

I stomped on his right foot with my heel and drove my right-handed hidden blade through his left shoulder.

He cried out in pain, "You sadistic child!"

I leaned into his face and smiled, "I'm the student of a demon; something had to rub off on me...Fufufu." I removed the hidden blade from his shoulder and lightly tapped his face, "So let's not play games, Shinobi-san. I ask questions, you answer them…without sarcasm and we'll be finished that much sooner, ne?"

"You kekkei genkai lovers can go fuck yourselves!"

I sighed, "Well, time for the big guns!" I ripped my sword from his foot, causing him to cry out in pain once more and placed it back in its sheath after slicing my hand. Going through the required hand signs, I placed my hand on the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!"

In a puff of smoke appeared a head-sized widow spider. "How may I be of service today, Tomiko?" The 'small' spider asked looking towards me.

I smiled at him, "Greetings Fushoku! I would like your assistance with my current interrogation."

The prisoner began to laugh, "Dear Kami, what is this? Brought your pet spider to help you out?"

I slapped him upside the head. "Shinobi-san," I said as my eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "What have we said about judging a book by its cover?"

He growled in response.

"Introduction time!" I cheered as Fushoku crawled into the prisoner's lap. "Shinobi-san, this 'pet spider', as you have called him, is named Fushoku! He is, because I'm positive you wouldn't know, a black widow spider. Generally, black widows specialize in poisons, but Fushoku is special. You see Shinobi-san, when Fushoku was young, it was discovered that he had a genetic mutation that caused his venom to be a little more…corrosive. While on the inside of his body the venom does not affect him, but on the outside? Fushoku, a demonstration if you would please."

"Of course, Tomiko-sama," he said.

Walking over to the wall, I took out my katana and pumped a little chakra into it, smiling at the familiar hum. Cutting a piece of rock from the wall, I placed it on the flat side of the sword and walked back over to Fushoku and the prisoner.

"This should be big enough I think," I said lowering the blade to Fushoku's level. "Just a little bit is needed. Watch closely, Shinobi-san."

I winked at him and he sneered.

Looking to the rock, I could see a small drop of venom dropping from one of Fushoku's fangs. The instant it touched the rock on my blade, it began to sizzle and eat away at the stone. Within seconds the rock was no more, and the remains of the venom slid off my blade and onto the floor, where it continued to burn a hole until it fizzled out.

"Well," I said smiling at the prisoner. "Thankfully my blade is a little special, ne? But what do you think that feels like on flesh, Shinobi-san?"

His eyes were clearly panicked, and I could see the apprehension building up in his body.

I looked to where Mei was standing behind the one-way wall, "I think we have ourselves a winner~!" I could almost imagine Mei's laugh. "Fushoku! Where do you think we should start? I was thinking we could start at his feet and work our way up!"

"Genitals," Fushoku said.

I looked to him in mock horror. "Fushoku you naughty thing," I said giggling. "This is your last chance, Shinobi-san, because I think I like his idea more than mine."

"I will never betray Yagura-sama!"

I shrugged, "Well...suite yourself! Fushoku, if you'd kindly do the honors."

I watched as a drop of venom began to build up on Fushoku's fang, and could see the terror beginning to grow on the prisoner's face.

But sadly, all good things must come to an end.

"Tomiko!" Mei yelled as the door swung open. "The camp is under attack!"

The prisoner started laughing. "Burn in hell, kekkei genkai scum!"

I smacked him upside the head again and looked to Mei, "Lead the way!"

She nodded and quickly left the room. I stopped at the doorway before leaving, looking over my shoulder at the still laughing prisoner and Fushoku. "Let it drop, Fushoku. Then you may return. Let Katashi-ojisan know that I may be summoning him shortly."

"As you wish, Tomiko."

I ran down the hall, screams of a certain someone being chemically castrated following behind me…

 ** _TLA_**

As soon as Mei and I shot out of the cave, she hit the scene like a spewing volcano from hell. I, on the other hand, went searching for a certain sword wielding maniac who was probably having the time of his life.

Twirling around a few scattered jutsu, I slid under an unsuspecting Kiri-nin, knocking him to the ground. Zabuza-shishou brought down the Kubikiribōchō to finish him off.

"Tomiko," he said casually.

"Shishou," I said leaping to my feet. "I can already tell you're having too much fun."

He smiled, "A little blood shed never hurt anyone."

I laughed, ducking under a blade and driving my katana through the assailant's chest, "Just the person who's bleeding."

He scoffed, hefting his sword through a group of enemies, "Well then maybe they should learn to dodge."

"Zabuza-sama, Tomiko-chan!" Shouted Haku as he burst onto the scene, showering the enemy in 'icebons.'

"Nice of you to join us, Ku-kun~!" I sang, shooting him a smile.

He blushed, ducking under the swing of my blade so I could connect to the Kiri-nin behind him. "Not all of us have your fancy eye sight, Tomiko."

"But Haku!" I said in mock hurt, "Shishou and I have a special bond that allows me to find—!" Stopping mid-sentence I rolled away from a flurry of kunai, firing a poison dart at the sly bastard who interrupted me. "It is not nice to interrupt a conversation!"

Haku began to laugh, and I could see Zabuza smirking at me.

"Maybe you should pay attention then, brat!" Shishou said.

"Hey!" I said, parrying a kunai with my hidden blade and cutting the enemy across the chest, "I am paying complete attention!"

"I'm getting bored of these flies," Zabuza growled. "Haku, Tomiko, let's show these maggots what we can do!"

"Yes, Zabuza-sama/shishou!" We echoed.

Haku began going through hand signs as Zabuza-shishou and I deflected any and all projectiles.

"Secret Technique: Great Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"

Ice mirrors began forming in the area, and compared to Haku's basic form, at a greater capacity. Soon, a giant dome of mirrors surrounded all the Kiri-nin, trapping the poor souls inside with us.

Thanks to Haku's increased speed while within the ice mirrors, he is able to keep all enemy nin away from Zabuza and myself.

 _'Actually, I wonder where Gōzu and Meizu are?'_

"Now Tomiko!" Zabuza grunted, pulling me away from my thoughts.

"Yes, Shishou!" Kneeling in front of Zabuza I quickly unsealed a large scroll from my belt and laid it in front of me. He began flying though hands signs while I placed a hand on the center of the scroll and pushed chakra into it, releasing a surge of electrified water.

"Water Style: Lightning Water Dragon Bullet!"

Suddenly, the torrent became an electrified water dragon, and began attacking the enemy in large numbers thanks to Zabuza's manipulation.

With Haku raining down 'icebons' and mine and Shishou's lightning-water dragon, we made quick work of the remaining enemy ninja in the area.

"That was fun!" I cheered while rolling the scroll back into place.

"Your lightning release and Zabuza-sama's water release does make for a strong combination." Haku said walking up to us, the giant dome dispersing in his wake.

"As fascinating as it is to talk about the obvious," Shishou drawled out. "Let's get a move on. This battle is long from over."

As if the world was trying to accentuate what he was saying, more explosions went off in the distance, followed by tall towers of lava.

"Rally point on Terumī," Shishou said. "Move out!"

We left the destroyed field in seconds, cleaving through anyone who tried to get in our way.

 ** _TLA_**

Locating Mei-sama was as simple as following the flow of lava back to its volcano.

 _'Oh wait…'_

"What a pleasant surprise," Mei-sama said. She was flanked by Ao and a nervous looking Chōjūrō. "And here I thought you'd get here quicker. Losing your touch, are we, Zabuza?"

Zabuza growled. "Listen here you—!"

"Shishou!" I shouted directing him to all the fighting happening around us. "Don't you think you'll miss out on all the fun?"

At that he gave pause, but soon a look I recognized to be little boy joy appeared in his eyes. Through his mask, I could see him smiling, "Wouldn't want that now, would we?" He asked, flinging his mighty sword at the nearest enemy.

Haku sighed while running after Zabuza, "And here I thought Zabuza-sama was the bad influence on you, Tomiko-chan."

I laughed, "Come, now, Ku-kun. You know Shishou and Mei-sama would bicker back and forth until the sun went down if I had let them!"

"We're not that bad, Tomiko-chan!" Mei said.

"I beg to differ!" I said pointing an accusatory finger her way. "In fact you do it on purpose! You're like a verbal masochist!"

Mei laughed, "Why I never—!" She stopped suddenly as confusion and then fear crossed her face. "This chakra signature…"

Just then the atmosphere in the surrounding area shifted, so drastic a civilian child could feel it. Subconsciously I unsheathed my katana, looking to Mei, "Who is it?"

"It's—" She began, but again was interrupted as we all turned on our heels facing a new enemy.

 _'A child?'_

I heard Ao growl and Chōjūrō take in a sharp breath. "Yagura," Mei finished.

 _'What. The. Fuck.'_

"Hello Mei," Yagura said.

"I never thought I'd see you so early on the battlefield, Yagura," Mei said. Their verbal banter was oddly polite, but the toxicity was palpable. "What are you doing here?"

"I came for your surrender, or…annihilation." he replied.

"Yagura!" Shishou yelled as he ran back to us. "The only surrender you will accomplish is the one coming from your dying body!" Ao seemed to agree with Zabuza's sentiments as they both appeared ready to charge forward, but Mei stopped them with a small wave of her hand.

"How did you find us?" Mei asked.

Yagura smiled, shooting a small glance towards me, Shishou, Haku. "From a few friends of yours, actually."

Just then, two cloaked figures landed in front of Yagura. Two people we knew very well.

My eyes widened, "Meizu? Gōzu?"

"What the hell!" Zabuza growled.

"I don't understand," I said. "Why did you betray us?!

"I'm sorry, Little Eagle," Meizu said.

Gōzu looked away, a dejected look to his face. "We didn't have a choice, we—"

"Silence." Yagura said, and the twins obeyed.

I narrowed my eyes. "What did you do to them?"

"What I do is of no concern to you, child," Yagura said. I growled in response as he turned his attention back to Mei. "Surrender now, Mei, and all of the bloodshed will stop. Refusal will lead to you watching everyone die."

Mei clenched her fists, leveling Yagura with a stern glare. "Never."

Yagura smiled, "Then so be it."

The hair on the back of my neck rose, and I brought my sword up in time to deflect Meizu's metal claw. Looking over I could see that Yagura, Mei, Ao, and Chōjūrō were gone, taking their battle elsewhere.

"Shishou!" I called, looking to him as he threw Gōzu away with the flat end of his sword.

"What is it brat?"

"Please leave this to me and Haku," I said, ducking under a right hook from Meizu and kicking him away.

Zabuza looked to the twins and then to me and Haku, "Are you sure?"

I looked to Gōzu and Meizu who were linking their gauntlets; they fight better together, and then to Haku who nodded. I then looked back to Shishou, "Positive." Just then a few towers of lava shot into the air, colliding with a wall of coral. "Besides, I believe you're needed elsewhere."

Zabuza looked into the distance and then back to us, "You two better not lose," he said and then dispersed in a haze of mist.

I got into a ready position as Haku formed a spear of crystallized ice and fell into position beside me. "Never," we said in unison, charging towards The Demon Brothers.

 ** _TLA_**

"Gōzu! Meizu!" I growled as our weapons clashed. The sad look in their eyes made me uneasy as both teams jumped back from each other.

"Why are you doing this?" Haku asked.

"Like I said, we do not have a choice." Gōzu responded.

"Yagura is not here anymore!" I pleaded. "You don't have to listen!"

"I wish it were that simple," Meizu said, charging once more with his brother.

"Tomiko-chan," Haku whispered as we braced ourselves. "I wish things were different, but I do not believe we have any other option than—"

"I know," I said dejectedly. "I just, I want to try and find another way. Gōzu and Meizu, they're family."

"Then let us try!" Haku said, throwing his spear towards the twins, which they dodged with ease.

Meeting them once more, we began exchanging blows. The Demon Brothers have become more fluid with their teamwork since beginning my travels with them, Shishou, and Haku. Where they have had issues predicting the others' moves, they have become more refined, able to follow each other near flawlessly.

 _'They never cared that much about training, that is until Zabuza-shishou chewed them out after losing two against one.'_

 ** _TLA_**

 _"Are you kidding me?!" Zabuza-shishou growled at the downed Demon Brothers. I winced at the amount of anger and disappointment in his voice. "What the fuck was that?!"_

 _"We were ill-prepared, Zabuza-sama," Gōzu said, Meizu was nodding with him. "I do believe we have underestimated the girl."_

 _"The girl? Underestimated?!" Shishou growled. "She knew just as much about you as you did her, and she completely_ outclassed _the both of your pathetic asses!"_

 _Gōzu and Meizu were both shrinking away with each lashing. "But—"_

 _"No buts!" Shishou was towering over them now, "She made you both look like you were two wet behind the ear greenhorns! It was like you weren't even trying, or better yet, she wasn't even trying! All of your moves were predictable and you barely got any hits in! You are both_ pathetic _! Now get out of my line of sight before I decide to physically punish you myself!"_

 _"Z-zabuza-sama—!"_

 _"GO!"_

 _The twins disappeared in two hazes of mist._

 ** _TLA_**

Despite the awkwardness of the situation, we all grew rather close afterwards. Gōzu and Meizu would disappear for days to who-knows-where, only to return looking like two haggard messes. Only after eating and cleaning up, would they ask me to spar, which I gladly accepted.

Friendly rivalry taught us all to push our limits, which made Haku and myself no slouches either.

But as we continued trading blows, I could tell Haku was becoming more and more erratic. The thought of actually having to hurt The Demon Brothers, or even killing them was wearing him down mentally. He was scared, we could all see that, and eventually the twins would try to capitalize on it.

 _'I need to try and calm him down.'_

"Haku—!" I started, but the twins reacted faster than my words could be said. Gōzu, who was standing in front of me, jumped back suddenly, reeling in the chain that connected him to his brother. This caused Meizu, who was mid-jump in front of Haku to be unexpectedly pulled towards the ice user. All too quickly I could see what was about to happen, and it had my eyes widening.

"No!" I tried to shout, but it was too late. Haku in his already startled state, reacted more on instinct than with his usual composure, creating another ice spear and quickly stabbing it through Meizu's chest and slamming him onto the ground.

I stopped. Haku froze.

"I—I didn't mean to." Haku said brokenly. He was reaching a shaking hand towards Meizu, when the dying man suddenly burst into water.

 _'A water clone! Wait, that means—Gōzu!'_

Haku and I recovered from our shock, only for Gōzu to suddenly be upon Haku, driving his clawed gauntlet into the boy's gut. Blood came shooting out of his mouth as he went flying backwards, after hitting the ground hard, he tumbled a few times before coming to a stop. He remained motionless.

I felt my heart drop, and my eyes widened. "Haku!"

"I'm sorry, Tomiko," Gōzu said as he turned to look at me. Meizu was coming out of the ground, forming from the puddle his water clone created. "I didn't want to kill him."

I felt a burst of pain open up in my chest as I leveled them with a hard glare. I could feel the atmosphere around us shift; thunder rolled in the distance.

 _'A storm is coming...'_

"How dare you!" I screamed, shooting towards the twins. The brothers were startled, along with myself, as I reached them quicker than I thought I would.

 _'Is their hair sticking up in the air?'_

The thought crossed my mind as I drew in closer to them, noticing the closer I got the more their hair stood on end. I shook the thought from mind once they jumped away, dodging the quick thrust of my katana.

"We're supposed to be family!" I yelled, shooting off after them once more.

Flashes of lightning became more prominent as our game of cat and mouse continued.

"Tomiko, you need to calm down!" Meizu shouted.

"Calm down?!" I was bringing my sword down, only for them to jump away again. "You killed Haku!"

By now bolts of lightning were actually striking the area around us, slowly growing near.

"Yes, you need to calm down!" Meizu shouted again.

"We don't know how, but your emotions are causing whatever is happening now!" Gōzu shouted after his brother.

"I don't care!" I said charging at them once more.

"But what if one strikes Haku!"

After that declaration, I stopped and looked back to Haku's body. The strikes were also getting close to his location, and my stomach twisted in a knot.

 _'They're right…'_

"Don't take your eyes off the enemy!"

Turning my head, I could see the twins closing in on me. Just as I was about to protect myself from whatever damage they were about to cause, the hair on the back of my neck raised and a bolt of lightning struck the ground directly between us.

I went flying back, hitting the ground a couple of times before coming to a stop.

 _'What the…'_

I coughed a few times, before shaking my head. The strike made me dizzy, but I oriented myself before standing back up. There was thick dust flying in the air now. That, mixed with the mist made visibility difficult without the Īgurubijon. But I used this time to calm myself down, because The Demon Brothers were probably in the same predicament as myself.

 _'Come on Tomiko…deep breaths now.'_

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly and re-opening my eyes. The change was almost instantaneous. It felt like the atmosphere was opening back up, and the air felt lighter, yet oddly enough I felt heavier. I did feel more calm though, and that was all the mattered at the time being. Swiping my thumb across my bloodied brow, I went through the summoning signs before placing my hand on the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu"

In a puff of smoke, Katashi appeared. He turned to me, "Tomiko-chan? Fushoku informed me that your camp was under attack, why did you not summon me earlier?"

I smiled at his always caring nature. "I'm sorry Ojisan, things weren't as hectic as they are now."

"I see," Katashi said looking around. "What is happening now?"

"Gōzu and Meizu, they're…something is wrong with them," I said. "They seem to have free thought, but no control over their actions. They…Gōzu killed Haku."

Katashi's gaze softened. "Tomiko-chan, I am sorry."

"I—thank you, Katashi-jisan," I said somberly. "But now is not the time for mourning, we must deal with the twins first."

"Of course, Tomiko-chan," he said. "I imagine you can locate them through this dust and mist?"

"I can," I said activating my dōjutsu. "Gōzu and Meizu are not too far ahead of us. They probably know that I am able to see them, so they're remaining in defensive stances right now."

"What do you wish to do?"

I hummed. "I imagine most of the dust will be cleared in a minute or so. When they're just visible, we should strike. Hit them low and throw them off balance, I'll take that opportunity to cut through their chain. After that I'll pull Meizu away from Gōzu."

"Understood," he said.

"Oh, and Ojisan?" He looked to me, "Be swift and end Gōzu quickly, I do not want him to suffer more than he already has."

"Of course, Tomiko-chan."

 ** _TLA_**

We sat in silence after discussing our plan. I felt anxiety more than anything else, but Katashi's presence allowed me calm down more efficiently.

"The dust is clearing," Katashi said.

"Just a few more seconds…"

 _'Now!'_

Just as Gōzu's and Meizu's silhouettes were becoming visible, Katashi and I leapt into action. The twins were caught completely off guard as Katashi suddenly appeared next to them, spinning his legs between the two, and knocking them off their feet.

I quickly capitalized on their moment of weakness, leaping above Katashi and breaking the chain connecting their gauntlets with an electrified swipe of my blade. After seeing the chain break with a feeling of satisfaction, I spun and performed a split kick, knocking the two brothers away from each other.

After nodding to Katashi, we both sped off to our designated targets.

Meizu was quick to recover, swiftly correcting himself in order to block the swing of my blade with his gauntlet.

We leapt away from each other and he smiled. "That was smart thinking," he said. "Summoning Katashi and separating us."

"It had to be done," I said readying myself. "Though I told Katashi-ojisan to be swift, so Gōzu would not have to suffer."

Meizu frowned. "It is true that he will not last long against Katashi," he said while also readying himself. "I just wish I had the chance to say goodbye. We may not have always gotten along, but he is my brother, and I will always love him."

The thought of what was to come, saddened me. But with a deep breath, I hardened myself to what was about to occur.

"I didn't want it to come to this," I said charging forward. "I am sorry, Meizu!"

"As am I, Tomiko," he said meeting me head on.

I allowed Meizu the opportunity for first strike, and he brought his gauntleted fist forward in what was to be an obvious feint, as his body was making miniscule shifts in weight to bring his opposite leg forward instead. Making him believe I was falling for the feint, I brought my sword across my body and began going through a series of hand signs with my other hand.

"Water Style: Water Pistol!" I shouted, just as his leg sprang forward. He reacted quickly, but not quick enough as my last shot grazed the back of his calf, slicing through like any good kunai would. He leapt away and obviously favored his newly wounded leg.

He winced, but also smiled. "I knew you and Haku were working on one-handed jutsus," he said. "But for you to get it down this quickly."

"I don't know if I'd take it that far," I said while charging forward again. I brought my blade forward and he deflected it with his gauntlet, clearly on the defensive now. "If I do signs with one hand, I can only cast the water pistol jutsu with that hand, vice versa with the other."

"That is still very impressive," he said deflecting another swing of my blade with his gauntlet and using the momentum to bring his good leg around. Dropping under it I swept my right leg under him to which he hopped over, and leapt away once more. "Most seasoned shinobi cannot even fathom the ability of using one hand for jutsu. Soon enough you'll be casting jutsu left and right with just a thought."

I rolled my eyes at him, but also gave him a dejected smile. "Such high hopes you have for me."

"Of course," he said. The emotion shining through his eyes were as clear as day, he was completely confident in the words he was speaking. "You will grow to become an amazing shinobi. Anyone who has met you can see this."

Warmth spread through my chest, but was quickly thwarted by ruthless realization. "I'm sorry you will not be here to watch and grow with me," I said charging at him once more.

"That's not quite true," he said steadying himself from his current position. "I will always be watching, and you better not let me down!"

 _'He seems calm, I'm glad he will at least be at peace.'_

I brought my blade forward as usual, knowing he'd deflect it with his gauntlet. The twins were very prideful, and they put a lot of that pride into their gauntlets. But after travelling with a person for so long you get to know things about them, weaknesses being among the list if said persons are not careful.

Closing in on Meizu, he solidified his stance, bringing his arm up once again to 'deflect' my swing. But just as my blow was about to connect, I twisted my wrist slightly and sent a surge of chakra through my sword; aiming for the small spot near his gauntlet's wrist that's used to remove it from his arm. Meizu's eyes widened, his shock apparent, as my sword separated his hand from his arm. Not being one to miss an opening, I continued with the force of my swing, spinning on my heel and striking him with a chakra enhanced kick. Blood seeped through his rebreather as he went flying back towards the tree line.

Meizu's trajectory caused him to slam up against a tree, and he slumped to the ground. Quickly sheathing my sword, I sent a burst of chakra through my legs and made my way to him.

"I believe that kick—of yours punctured—a lung," he said quietly as I approached. "I will—die—here."

"Meizu." I whispered as I got closer, but he shot me a look.

"Please," he coughed. "Do not come too close—I am afraid I might hurt—you."

"You idiot," I said kneeling next to him. Reaching around his rebreather, I undid the clasp and gave him a dull look. "Like you could hurt me."

He coughed again, but also smiled. "It's so like you to make jokes during—dire situations."

I looked down and smiled, "It eases the pain."

"Again, I am sorry—for what has happened," he said.

I looked into his sad gaze. "I still can't believe this happened at all, Meizu. What happened to the two of you?"

He took in a deep, wheezing breath, and looked skyward. "I wish—I could understand," he started. "Gōzu and I, we—were on a patrol route and stumbled upon a man—that seemed very—strange. So, we followed him back—to where he was—staying. He met up with Yagura—at some random, abandoned base. Thinking back, I believe—it was a trap to lead us—there. We turned back to leave—but Yagura appeared—before us so—we tried to—escape. But the strange man appeared—as well—and caused some strange—golden light to appear. I blacked—out and I believe Gōzu—did as well. When I came to—we were at a random base—again—and had no control over our bodies. I do not know if it's—some strange—genjutsu—but we couldn't break it. I didn't—want to tell them—where the camp was when they—asked. But, I couldn't—control what I said—once they did. I—am—sorry."

I tear fell from my eye, and I wrapped Meizu in a small embrace. "No Meizu, I am sorry you had to go through that," I whispered. "It should have never happened. We should have all stayed together."

I leaned back as he started to cough again. "No," he said. "We were—all helping the cause—in our own way. Do not feel—guilt—for what has—happened. The only guilty—party—here is Yagura—and that man."

"I will make this right," I said looking in the direction of our previous battle. "I'll carry you over to your brother and—"

"Tomiko—move!" He shouted suddenly.

Instead of jumping away I looked back to him as a syringe pressed into my arm. My eyes followed it back to Meizu, and a tear rolled down his cheek.

I felt numb, then searing pain.

Meizu's mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear anything. Was I screaming?

My vision began to blur.

 _'Meizu…Haku…'_

"TOMIKO!" I heard in the distance.

"I'm—sorry—Little Eagle." Meizu barely whispered before his head hung limp.

My world went dark.

 **Author's Notes:**

[04/05/18] Editing is almost done!

Wowowowowowow. It has been nearly a year since I last updated this story and it makes me feel like complete crap, and I want to apologize for that. Right around the time I was typing up this chapter last year, something happened to my computer and it got all corrupted, and computer's that I need are expensive so it took me a while to get a new one, and then I had to re-type, delete, re-type, edit, delete, re-type, and edit this chapter.

Again I want to apologize to the few of you that followed and favorited the story, I know I get upset once a story I like goes AWOL.

But I hope you all somewhat enjoyed this pain in the ass chapter.

Until next time! (Which I hope comes more quickly than a year this time!)


	9. Calm Before the Storm

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or ant of the Assassin's Creed themes inside the story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.

CH:9 Calm Before the Storm

My eyes snapped open.

"Haku!" I screamed, sitting up and looking at my surroundings frantically.

 _'A cave?'_

"Tomiko-chan," a familiar voice said. "You are safe, calm down."

"Katashi?" I whispered. Not realizing how sore my body was, I winced as I started laying back down; adrenaline wearing off slowly. "What happened? Where is Haku, Shishou, and the others? Where are we?"

"Easy my child," he said gently. "We are currently in Kumonosu Valley."

"What?" I said, maybe with a little too much force, wincing once more. "We were all the way in the Land of Water, how did we get back here so quickly?"

"I had to have you reverse summoned." I gave him a confused look as he continued. "You were poisoned after your battle with Meizu. By the time I reached you, you were nearly unconscious and convulsing, so I returned here and had you summoned for emergency treatment."

"Who better to treat me then, right?" But he did not look too pleased. "Katashi?"

"It was bad, Tomiko," he said softly. "We weren't sure at first as to what it was, so we didn't know if we could save you in time. Even after that it took a while, until now, for you to regain consciousness."

"A while?" I asked tentatively. "How long is a while?"

"It has been three, nearly four months now."

"Four months!?" I shouted, shooting back up. Soreness be damned! "What happened to Haku? And what about Zabuza-shishou? Does he even know I'm here? He probably thinks he's lost both of his students!"

"I'm sorry, Tomiko," he said with a hard voice. "I happened to be a little more concerned about the dying, and last summoner of our contract." His voice grew softer, "Your mother and I were both young when she first summoned me as her Alpha. You are like my niece, Tomiko, and I couldn't bear to lose you as well."

I looked away from him. "You're right, Katashi-jisan, I'm sorry I said that. I just, Haku and Zabuza, they were—are my family as well. I'm just worried."

"I know you are, Tomiko," he said. "And now that you're conscious, the both of us will return the second you're cleared by the orb weavers, okay?"

"Okay," I smiled. "Thank you, Katashi. I appreciate it more than you know."

"Anything for you, my dear. But I should get going so you can rest. I'll be bringing a doctor by in a while to—"

"MIKO-CHAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!" A voice shouted, crashing through the front of the cave.

"Kenta- _nii…_ " I wheezed at the end, as his weight crashed on top me.

"I was oh so worried!" _Is he crying right now?_ "I was so excited when Katashi-sama said that you had to be reverse summoned as soon as possible, but when you appeared I thought you were dying! I was so sad!"

"I mean, technically I was dying." I said.

"Don't remind me, Miko-chan!"

"Kenta," Ayaka said entering the cave. "You know she's not one-hundred percent right now. Get off of her, you fat bum!"

"I resent that!" He shouted in defense, but also getting off of me. "I am not fat! I just have a big exoskeleton!"

Their banter stopped as I began to laugh, and they laughed with me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Katashi smiling, in his own spidery way.

Everything was going to be okay.

 ** _TLA_**

"Where is everyone?" I asked to an empty field.

 _'This was the camps last location. I don't know where they would have gone from here.'_

Activating my dōjutsu, the world bled to grey.

 _'All of this blasted rain. Any trail would be long gone by now. Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt summoning Katashi-ji now.'_

Biting my finger, I went through the seals. _'Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram…'_

"Summoning Jutsu!"

"It's about time you summoned me, Tomiko," Katashi said.

"Sorry Katashi," I started looking at him. "I just thought I'd find a trail first and then summon you. Thought it seems the constant raining is preventing me from picking up on anything."

Katashi stayed quiet while peering around the field for a moment. "Well it certainly appears so," he started. "But I do not believe you are looking correctly."

"Looking correctly?" I asked. "What else would I be looking for?"

"My dear," he said approaching. "After four months of separation, you are emotionally drained. You are looking so hard that you are simply doing just that, looking _too_ hard. Do something for me, Tomiko?"

"Of course?" I added questioningly.

"Close your eyes," I did. "Now concentrate. Detach yourself emotionally, but not fully. You want to be able to feel, but not so much that it interferes with the clarity of your mind. Your mother taught you that the Īgurubijon is your clan's natural enhancement to all human sensory, but for it to work accordingly you must not be compromised. Activate your eyes, Tomiko, and find your center. Once you do, look into the world."

"Okay Katashi," I said while activating the Īgurubijon. _'Find my center. Find my center. My center; Haku, Zabuza!'_

My eyes opened up to a world of grey, but in the distance, a splash of gold. "Katashi, I did it!" I shouted running to the edge of the woods, missing the look of astonishment on his spidery face.

 _'Remarkable! Not even her father was as adept with the Īgurubijon. Tomiko, what does your future hold for you once you awaken the Īgurusensu?'_

"Katashi-ji, I know you can't see what I'm seeing, but right here," I said placing my hand on the ground. "Is a footprint. It appears to be angled towards the northwest. Should we investigate?"

"If your eyes picked it up, I have no doubt in my mind that it will lead us to where you need to be," he said.

I blushed, rubbing the back of my neck. "Well when you put it like that I guess there is no other choice! Would you like to take lead?" I asked turning to him, but he was already gone. Spinning around I could see him dashing off, further into the woods. "Katashi-ji! That's no fair!"

"I can't help it if you're being slow and bashful, Tomiko-chan!"

"I resent that, you old man!"

 ** _TLA_**

"Achoo!"

"Kenta, did you just sneeze?"

"I'm not sure? I didn't even know we could sneeze, Ayaka-nee. But I have a feeling Tomiko just stole my catchphrase!"

"Stop worrying about that stupid line and let's get back to training! Or you'll never be able to catch up to father."

"Hey! I resent that you know!"

 ** _TLA_**

"Katashi," I said while keeping pace with him. "What do you think we'll find? It has been four months after all."

He took a side glance at me, and looked forward. "I am not quite sure how to answer that, Tomiko-chan. What do you hope to find?"

"Everyone," I said a little downcast. "Mei with all of her misfit rebels, Shishou and Haku. I don't want to think that they're all gone just because it has been four months. I want them to be out here somewhere."

"Well," Katashi said a little quieter. "There certainly is _someone_ out here."

Taking his que, I activated the Īgurubijon and pivoted on my foot, spinning to glance at the surrounding area, and landing on the next branch to continue moving forward.

"How many?" He asked.

"Five of them, and they're all hostile." I responded back. "I think your presence is making them a little hesitant."

"How many people can say that they have witnessed a sentient spider the size of an adult male?" He chuckled a bit. "What would you like to do, Tomiko?"

"I see some light breaking through up ahead, so it might be a clearing. We should see if they know anything about the rebel movement."

"Sounds like a plan to me, Tomiko." He said as we broke through the tree line of a small clearing

Landing in the center, we turned back to where we came from, and I activated my eyes once more.

"I'm going to assume they stopped just outside the area?" Katashi asked.

I nodded. "Do you think we should call them out?"

"I'm afraid that won't be necessary," a new voice said.

Five men appeared in front of us, all wearing the same headband hailing from Kirigakure. Their appearances were relaxed, but they seemed on edge as well.

"What business do you have in The Land of Water?" Asked the one who for all intent and purposes shall be deemed the leader.

"Oh, you know," I said wistfully. "A little bit of this and a little bit of that."

That seemed to aggravate a few of them, as they twitched towards their weapon pouches.

"Listen girl," the leader said. "The Land of Water is currently at war with a rebel faction, and we have the power to execute suspicious individuals on sight. Now I will ask once more, what business do you have in The Land of Water?"

He moved his hand to his weapon pouch as I looked to Katashi. "What are your feelings on this? Do you think they know anything?"

"Well," Katashi said. Four out of the five men flinched when he spoke, "The one who appears to be the leader might know something."

The leader began gritting his teeth. "Listen here you brat I—"

He was interrupted by one of his men shouting. "Let's forget about asking and just kill 'em!"

The one who shouted charged forward with one other person while Katashi and I stayed completely still.

I smirked.

 _'How I enjoy being underestimated.'_

Flicking my wrist, I popped a poison dart into my left gauntlet and fired it at the second Kiri ninja. Being caught off guard by my sudden movement, he reacted far too slowly and it pierced him in the left shoulder. He took two more steps before collapsing onto the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth. Being slightly ahead, the first Kiri ninja did not see the second one go down and continued his charge with kunai in hand.

I stared him down as he drew closer and lifted his kunai to bring it down on me. He smirked in triumph, seeing as if I had no way to defend myself now that he was so close. I continued to stare as his arm came down at a blinding rate, only for the kunai to be stopped within an inch of my face. His lifeless eyes stared straight at me, on a face contorted in a millisecond's worth of pain, courtesy of Katashi's leg sticking through his torso.

"He could have killed me, you know!" I said indignantly towards Katashi.

"Oh please," he said flicking the man off of his leg. "He was charging at you like I didn't even exist. And it's not like you can't defend yourself against someone who acts like an imbecile."

I took a glance at the three remaining men, who were now standing at the ready with weapons in hand. Bodies stiff and rigid, ready to move at a moment's notice.

"Well," I said unsheathing my sword and getting into my own stance. "It looks like the time for talking is over."

"It appears so," Katashi said. "I will take the leader, Tomiko. I believe that you can handle the other two."

"Katashi," I said. "You are far stronger than any opponent we will face out here. Knowing you, you would start having too much fun and end up accidentally killing him."

He chuckled and shot forward, "Have faith Tomiko!" Blowing right past the star-gazed leader, the two goons behind him almost didn't bring their weapons up in time to block Katashi's piercing leg blows. The sheer force behind the strikes caused both men to go tumbling back into the woods.

"I will allow it this time!" Katashi shouted running after them.

Almost comically, the leader was so astonished he turned to look at where his teammates once were.

"Don't forget about me!" I said in his face.

He unfortunately, though I suppose fortunately for his own wellbeing, shook himself out of his befuddlement and was able to parry my blade with his kunai.

 _'High level chūnin or low to mid-level jōnin with that reaction time. I sure hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew.'_

"You're pretty fast for a kid," he said dashing towards me. "But you should have kept your summon around, you're no match for me by yourself."

Bringing his kunai down, I easily blocked it with my katana. Shifting his weight, he brought his right leg across his body to kick me in the head, but I got my left arm up in time to block it with my gauntlet, tumbling to the side due to the blow.

 _'Definitely low to mid-level jōnin. Totally going to be bruised, if not dead after this.'_

Digging my katana into the ground, I changed the grip to swing around and trip him up on his next charge.

Flipping through the air, he just barely missed my foot while going through some quick hand signs. "Water Style: Senbon Mouth Shot!" Three water-like senbons come shooting from his mouth in quick succession.

With a flick of the wrist, I fired a dart to intercept the closest senbon while deflecting the other two with the flat-side of my blade. But to my surprise, the jōnin is right in my face and kicks my wrist, making my katana fly onto the ground and away from me. Using his momentum, he pivots on one foot and strikes me in the gut with two open palms.

Crashing on the ground a few times, I plant my left hand on the ground and right myself just as he's bringing his kunai down with his right hand. Bringing my left arm up, I block it with my hidden blade and spit a mouthful of blood at our feet.

"Not this again," I say as he brings his right leg across in an attempt to kick me once more. But this time, I go through a few seals with my right hand and point it at his leg. _'Water Style: Water Pistol!'_

At this range, and without any prompting, he had no chance to dodge the shot of water that left my fingertip as it went straight through his right thigh.

"Ah, what the fuck!" He shouted leaping back. Clearly caught by surprise. He went through a series of hand signs before placing his palms on both sides of his wound. They began to light up, and he hissed through grit teeth.

 _'Is he cauterizing his wound?!'_

"You'll pay for that you damned brat!" He growled.

"We'll see about that!" I shouted, extending both hidden blades and charging at him.

He took out a second kunai and met me head on. "I'm going to cut your fucking head off!"

I scowled, just barely parrying two quick strikes.

 _'He's certainly pissed right now, but it doesn't seem to be affecting his abilities in a negative way'_

We met once more, him bringing both of his kunai down in a powerful slash and I brought both of my arms up in an 'X' to block them with my gauntlets.

I grit my teeth. _'My luck. Someone who actually tries harder when they're angry.'_

My feet started to slide as he began to overpower me. Attempting to throw him off balance, I leapt back during his last push. But unfortunately, he was able to keep his balance and stayed right on top of me. Now inside of my guard, he caught my left arm with one of his kunai and sent me flying back once more with a hard kick to the chest.

Blood spewed from my mouth as I went tumbling across the ground before sliding to a complete stop. Attempting to jump up, I was stopped by the enemy's foot slamming my head back into the ground. Disoriented, and with stars clouding my vision I saw him leave briefly before returning with what appeared to be my own weapon.

"This ends here, you stupid brat," he said venomously. "And you'll die knowing you were killed by your own wea—"

He stopped talking after I spit a glob of blood at his face. "Screw you," I said in return.

"You know what," he said with a sneer on his face, raising my blade above his head. "I was going to let you die with a little bit of dignity, but screw it!"

Unable to move, I just stared him down as he brought death upon me.

 _'I'm sorry for letting you down, Katashi. Mother, Father, I will be with you soon.'_

I continued to stare as the blade came within inches of my body, only for my eyes to widen as the enemy was suddenly _cleaved in half_.

"Brat," a new but _very_ familiar voice growled. "What have I told you about losing your weapon?"

"That I should never let it happen," I said looking towards the new arrival with tears in my eyes. "Shishou."

 ** _TLA_**

"So, you thought his anger would cloud his capabilities," Katashi said with a little bit of disappointment in his voice.

"I'm sorry Katashi-ji," I said with a small voice. "I overestimated myself and should have went with your idea first."

"That gash on your arm will teach you a valuable lesson on overestimating yourself," he said looking over me. "You're lucky that Zabuza-san was in the area and overheard the fighting."

I looked to Zabuza, who was currently facing away from us with arms crossed. "Shishou I—"

"Listen brat," he said turning back to face me. His features were stiff, but his eyes held a certain gentleness that I don't ever remember seeing before. "You should have known better than fighting an enemy who you knew nothing about. You were taught better, _I_ taught you better. Katashi was right in saying that you were lucky I was here, or I—You would have died."

I balled my fists and looked to the ground with tears in my eyes. "I'm sorry." I whispered.

He let out a rough sigh. "Damn right you're sorry," he said. "Haku would have been very upset."

My head shot up, and eyes focused on Zabuza. "Haku?" I said with a shaky voice. My chest began to constrict, and I thought I stopped breathing.

"Haku, brat," Shishou said with an odd sense of gentleness. "He would have been upset if I had to tell him you died—again."

"Again?" Katashi and I said at the same time.

Shishou sighed turning back around. "Come with me," he said waving us towards the woods. "It will be getting dark soon, and we have much to discuss. My camp is a short run away."

By short run, Zabuza meant thirty minutes of high speed travelling, but we followed him over many rivers and through the woods to his campsite nonetheless.

Taking in my surroundings I threw a questioning looks towards Shishou, "Haku?" I asked.

He shook his head, sitting lazily next to what used to be a fire. "Haku is still not very fond of killing, so what I've been doing is not exactly up his alley. He stayed with the main camp."

I settled down across from Zabuza and smiled a little knowing that Haku was definitely okay, but threw another quizzical look towards him. "So, what exactly have you been doing out here by yourself, Zabuza-shishou?"

He looked at me briefly before looking back down to his pit, going through a few seals before pulling the moisture off the logs. After going through another set of familiar hand signs, het got a fire going the same way the enemy ninja from earlier cauterized his wound. "What am I doing out here by myself?" He asked no one in particular, now slouching back with his usual swagger. "Hunting down groups similar to the one you encountered earlier. Though, the group you just happened to run into was the first to have anything above a chūnin on it." He chuckled darkly before continuing. "Yagura must have finally decided that I'm worth more than just chump change, not like that puny jōnin from earlier would have stood a chance against me anyways. Speaking of which, what exactly were you doing going up against a jōnin by yourself?"

"I—Well, you see shishou." I laughed nervously, which sounded more like a whine to my ears.

"We were tracking the rebels when I noticed that we were being followed," Katashi cut in. "So, we led them to a clearing to see if any of them would have information of the rebel's movements. There were five people in the party and they seemed rather nervous, but now I understand why if they were sent into the middle of the woods hunting for you." Shishou smirked through his bandages, and I could tell he was telling Katashi to continue with his eyes. "Two out of the five charged us foolishly and were dealt with promptly. I suggested to Tomiko that I take the jōnin while she took the two chūnin, but she convinced me otherwise. Though now I see that it was a very poor decision, on both our parts."

I rubbed the back of my neck and lowered my head. "Ah—I'm sorry about that again."

Katashi gave me a small, but gentle look before looking back at Zabuza. "Thank you for looking after Tomiko, Zabuza-san. The clan would have been up in arms if we would have lost her today. Dare I say, the Land of Water may have been invaded by a force never seen by the likes of man."

Shishou gave out a short huff before looking away. "It's nothing," he said. "Haku would have been displeased, is all."

I smiled softly, knowing Zabuza wasn't _just_ talking about Haku. But I kept that little secret to myself.

"Even so," Katashi said once more, bowing slightly to Zabuza who looked to be blushing ever so lightly. "I thank you on behalf of all the spiders in Kumonosu Valley." He then turned his spidery gaze my way. "My time is about up, dear child. The next time you summon me, I expect smarter decisions from you, yes?"

I rubbed my neck at his knowing look. "Of course, Katashi-ji! Anything for you!"

"Good," He said matter-of-factly, he then turned back to Zabuza. "Good day, Zabuza-san. Please do keep her in line." And with that he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Shishou!" I cheered crashing into him, rubbing my face against his. "You really did miss me!"

"Brat," he growled. But I felt no attempt of him trying to push me off. "Sit down, we need to talk."

"Yes, sir!" I said, squeezing him once more and taking a seat _almost_ right next to him. "So, what do you want to talk ab—Oh. Right."

"Where have you been these last four months, Tomiko?" He asked, gaze unreadable.

"I—Well, let me start from the beginning." I took a deep breath, and steeled myself to retell my battle with Meizu. "Has Haku told you about what happened up to the point I thought he died?" At that he nodded grimly. "Right after that? Well, I got real mad. My chest was so hot and I was just so _angry_. The atmosphere seemed to shift with my anger, and a lightning storm rolled in almost immediately. The twins seemed to think that I was directly affecting it. I know, don't give me that look. I wasn't sure either. But anyways, a strike of lightning gave me the chance to summon Katashi and he helped me take on the brothers. We split them up, him taking on Gōzu and I took on Meizu. I had the upper hand while we fought, and I thought I had him defeated, but he injected me with some form of poison that almost had the spiders back in the Valley stumped."

"How did you make it back there so quickly?" He asked.

"Well, at that point in time I was unconscious." I said rubbing my palms against my knees. "Katashi-ji said I was convulsing and he had me reverse summoned back to the Valley. He said they couldn't figure it out at first, and that I actually did almost die. After all of that, I was comatose until a few days ago."

We sat in a tense silence while Zabuza stared into the flames of the campfire, the features on his face hard and eyes unreadable.

The silence was filled when he closed his eyes and exhaled deeply through his nose. "After Yagura fled, I rushed back to where I left you two," he said, but kept his gaze on the flickering fire. "They all followed me back. Mei, Ao, and Chōjūrō. I wasn't worried. I was confident that you two could handle yourselves. Even more so when we saw Gōzu laying on the ground with a chest wound that probably killed him instantly. Unfortunately, that's when we saw Haku on the ground. We rushed over to him and he was alive, if just barely. But that's when Mei mentioned that she couldn't see, or sense you. Ao even used his stolen eye to search the area, but you were gone. Haku was inconsolable during his recovery. But once he did, he threw himself into training and missions."

I was mortified, thinking of all the wrong ways Haku must have been blaming himself. So lost in my own thoughts, I didn't even know that Zabuza was now kneeling in front of me until he put his hands on my shoulders. I looked up at him and my eyes widened.

"Zabuza-shishou are you cry—" Shishou pulled me into his chest, preventing me from finishing my sentence.

I froze, not exactly sure as to what I was supposed to do.

 _'I never imagined Shishou would ever cry for me.'_

"I'm so sorry, Tomiko." He said. "None of this was supposed to happen. Neither of you were supposed to ever be on your deathbeds. I should have stayed. I should not have left you two by yourselves. Then today you almost," he paused. "This will never happen again. I promise. It _will never_ happen again. I'm sorry, Tomiko. I'm so, _so_ , sorry."

My eyes widened again, before the gates broke open. His hold on me only tightening as I returned his embrace, a sob escaping between my lips.

Though I knew, while openly sobbing into his chest, and Zabuza-shishou whispering apology after apology into my ear, that this would never be brought up again.

Being unable to help myself, a thought crossed my mind that only caused my cries to grow stronger, and Shishou's voice to grow softer.

 _'Is this what it's supposed to feel like Mother?'_ I thought, my hold on Zabuza growing stronger. _'To feel a father's love?'_

 ** _TLA_**

After that night, Shishou and I spent a few more days in the woods dispatching any groups we ran into before returning to the main camp.

Casually walking towards the now obviously larger campsite, I couldn't help but to walk with a little pep in my step. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Zabuza looking at me the way he does when he thinks I can't see, and I smiled softly. Something changed for good between us that night, and it made a warmth spread throughout my chest.

"I get to see Haku again!" I said cheerily skipping ahead of him.

"I don't remember you being this excited when you saw me again, brat." He responded dryly.

I stopped and spun on my heel, tilting my head to the side. "Aww, Shishou! I'm sorry you feel left out!" I jumped towards him and wrapped him up in a bear hug. Though he seemed unbothered as he continued to walk towards the guards who were now choking on the air around them.

The guard's eyes widened as we got closer. "She lives?" One of them whispered, but we could still hear.

I leapt off of Zabuza, winking and holding my fist towards the guards. "No one can keep me down for long! Fufufu!"

Zabuza walked up behind me and swatted the back of my head. "Shut up, brat." He grumbled. "Where is Mei? We need to talk."

"Mei-sama left after receiving an urgent message," one of the guards said crossing his arms. He looked tense. "A group being led by your young ice user sent word of an ambush, and she left immediately with a group of reinforcements to give aid. The rest of us were ordered to stay, in case the camp was attacked."

My eyes widened. _'Haku was ambushed?!'_ "Where did they go?!" I asked frantically. "In which direction?!"

"Tomiko!" Shishou shouted. "Calm down."

"But Shishou, Haku is in—!"

"Do not let your emotions cloud your head, brat," he scolded. He turned to the guards, "Now tell me where they headed."

"Of course," the other guard said. "They from the wet side of camp a little while ago."

Zabuza gave them a stiff nod and took off. I gave the guards a small nod before dashing off after him.

"Shishou!" I called out to him as we re-entered the woods. "We'll save him, right?"

"Of course, brat." He said giving me a determined look before facing forward again. "I promised."

We travelled in a tense, but comfortable silence after that.

After about ten minutes, I activated my eyes to look ahead. "There's people up ahead!" I said, looking at the multiple red and green blurs in the distance. "Haku has got to be up there!"

With that, we picked up the pace before jumping into the middle of what appeared to be another full-on battle.

"This was only supposed to be an ambush I thought?" I said looking at Zabuza, who seemed to be glaring at the area.

"We will find out what happened once the enemy is dead at our feet," he growled out. "Where is Haku?"

Activating my eyes once more, I specifically went looking for Haku. "There he is!" I said looking at his golden glow, fending off a single enemy. "He looks tired, but doesn't appear to have any injuries."

"Let's move!" Shishou said, as we dashed towards Haku.

We were almost to his location when, unbeknownst to Haku, another enemy appeared behind him.

"What is he doing?!" I shouted, my chest getting hot again as I pulled ahead of Zabuza.

"Haku!" Shishou shouted, but he didn't seem to be able to hear over all the fighting.

Mentally cursing the situation, I took my sword out with my right hand and began going through seals with my left hand. "Water Style: Water Pistol!" I shouted, just as the enemy moved to attack Haku's back.

The shot of water tore through the ninja's hand, causing him to drop his weapon and scream in pain. This caught Haku's attention, as he turned his head in time to see me stabbing the enemy through the chest.

"Tomiko." He whispered, eyes widened.

"Geeze Haku," I said putting my hand on my hip, smirking up at him. "I leave you alone for almost four months, and you forget how to defend yourself. My, what would Shishou say?!"

"That you're a brat." Shishou actually said. Flinging the enemy Haku was facing off of his sword.

"Shishou!~" I whined. "That wasn't very—"

Haku was squeezing me. "You're alive," he said. "You're here, you're alive, I—"

"Of course I'm alive, silly!" I said, trying very hard not to squeeze him back and putting him at an arm's distance. "We can talk all you want later, but we have bigger fish to fry!"

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Shishou said. A little bit of blood lust cutting through his voice. "Now, after me kiddies!"

Shishou charged straight ahead, swinging his massive sword a little too happily at any nearby enemy.

After getting a small breather, Haku turned to look at me, giving me a look that meant words would be exchanged later. After that, he charged ahead, raining icebon down on any of the 'lucky' ninja Shishou happened to miss.

I took a moment to stare after them with a strange fondness, considering they were currently wreaking havoc on the battleground, but smiled at them anyway.

After another moment of idleness, I shot after them. Making sure that anyone they knocked down, didn't get back up.

 ** _TLA_**

After leveling the playing ground, many of the Kiri ninja fled, and the nearby rebels cheered at their victory.

Cheering a bit to myself, I laughed at Zabuza who was just nodding his head with his arms crossed over his chest. Haku seemed amused as well, holding a hand over his mouth to hide his smile.

I took this moment and used it to my advantage, leaping towards Haku and tackling him to the floor.

"I thought I watched you die," I said talking into his chest.

He squeezed me, letting out a small, hiccupy chuckle. "I'm alive, silly." He said, throwing my words from earlier back at me.

I couldn't help but laugh. I was back with my boys and couldn't be happier.

"Alright brats," Shishou said. "Stop cuddling and get off the floor, I need to speak with Mei."

"You can go without us, Shishou." I said, snuggling further into Haku's chest.

"Brat," Shishou growled. Walking over to us, he grabbed me by the hood and lifted me up to eye level. "Let's go."

I stuck my tongue out at him as he let go of my hood. But before I hit the ground, I found myself being crushed into a soft chest.

"Tomiko-chan!~" Mei sang, twirling me around.

"It seems," Haku began with a small amount of amusement in his voice. "That Mei-sama has found us first, Zabuza-sama."

"Mei," Zabuza said dryly. "You're going to suffocate the kid if you hold her into your chest any longer."

"I would never!" Mei said, placing me back onto the ground but still squeezing me. She was rubbing her cheek along my cheek, and I felt my face heating up. "Tomiko-chan, you don't know how much I've missed you!"

"Mei-sama," came the unmistakable voice of Ao. "Must you be so unprofessional?"

"Please, Ao," she practically purred. Now going with running her fingers through the hair on the top of my head. "She was thought to be dead for the last four months, and just came back to aid us in a very decisive victory. I am allowed to act any way I see fit."

Ao just rolled his visible eye and crossed his arms, letting a small huff out to the side.

"M-Mei-sama," Chōjūrō said sheepishly off to the side. "Perhaps we could clean-up and get going back to camp?"

"Why Chōjūrō-kun," Mei said, standing back to her feet and patting my head. Looking over our ragtag group, a dangerous glint entered her eyes. "What a marvelous idea! After all, we certainly have much to discuss."

After clearing the area of any signs of a battle happening, we made our way back to the main camp. We were greeted with loud cheers as Mei announced our victory, and let the friends and family of the fallen know that they could collect the scroll holding the remains of their loved ones at the medical tent. We then made our way towards Mei's "headquarters", upon entering she let the guards on the outside know that we were not to be disturbed unless an emergency occurred.

We took seats around a table decorated with a map of The Land of Water. Mei, obviously, took the seat at the head of the table with Ao sitting to her right and Chōjūrō to her left. Shishou took the seat directly across from Mei, while Haku sat to the right and I to his left.

Mei leaned forward, resting her cheek on the palm of her left hand. She tapped the fingers on her right hand idly on the table while studying the map. "I believe we have won a very important victory today," she said, moving to interlock her fingers in front her face, placing her chin on top of them. "Don't you think, Zabuza?"

Shishou grunted. Crossing his arms and placing a foot on the table, rocking his chair back slightly. "When we arrived, the guardsmen told us that you left to aid in a failed ambush against Haku's group. But what Tomiko and I discovered was much more than a simple ambush."

"Quite," Mei said glancing towards Haku. "Your thoughts, dear?"

Haku slid his chair forward, clasping both hands and placing them on the table. "I believe my team was ambushed by an enemy scouting team. Though considering on how many people showed up after you arrived on the scene, Mei-sama, I think we have stumbled upon something else entirely."

"A scouting team far outside Kirigakure's walls?" I asked.

"Similar to the one you subdued months ago, Tomiko-chan." Haku said.

"And we know where that led to," Shishou growled.

"P-Perhaps Yagura is going to be leading another attack?" Chōjūrō announced.

Mei seemed to be analyzing our thoughts with her own. "No," she said. "If that turtle was anywhere near us earlier, he would have shown up. But that doesn't necessarily mean he hasn't mobilized another force against us."

"That must explain all of the groups I've been running into in the woods," Shishou said. "They're trying to locate us for a preemptive strike again."

"Yes," Ao agreed. "And with all of the people who showed up earlier. The group that ambushed Haku's team must not have been too far from their own camp."

"So, if we were to locate them first," I said, adding my own thoughts to where this was going. "We could hit them before they hit us."

"Precisely," Mei said smiling. "If we were to surprise them with our own attack, we could cripple a large portion of Yagura's forces."

"This may very well lead us to our victory, Mei-sama." Ao said.

Mei took a quick glance at me, before shifting her eyes to Haku, and finally settling them on Zabuza. "In the past six months, the rebel forces have come a long way and have witnessed many victories. I have no doubt in believing that you three have played a large part in this. We agreed to six months of service, and those six months will be ending here in the coming week. While I know that our dear Tomiko-chan vanished and hasn't been able to be of service for these last four months," Shishou appeared to be on the front of retaliation when Mei lifted her hand to silence him. "But she has aided us in a critical mission in the past, along with the two months she was here before she disappeared. And you, Zabuza, along with Haku-kun have played very vital roles while she has been gone. I am a lady of my word, and so when the time comes you will all be able to leave, even if you have not been present in a consecutive manner."

"If I may," I said. Catching Mei's attention. "I would like to explain the reason as to why I vanished."

"If you would like to, dear," Mei said. "But you are in no way required to."

"No," I responded shaking my head. "I would like to. Plus, I have a warning that needs to be taken into consideration."

"Then please tell us," she said.

Everyone put their full attention on me while I retold the story I told Zabuza the night we talked. I told them about my fight with Meizu, what we discussed as he was dying, and the poison he injected me with. I told them how the branch of widow spiders, who specialize in poisons, almost failed in figuring it out in time. I told them I almost died, but ended up in a coma, only waking up a few days ago.

Shishou had his eyes closed, and Haku seemed to be holding himself back from leaping across the table.

Chōjūrō seemed heavily displeased, while Ao seemed lost in thought.

Mei, though, was eyeing me with a piercing look. Seeming to be calculating my appearance, but then her eyes softened. "I must give credit to your summons' medical prowess. Nothing I see now tells me that you've been comatose for such a long time."

"If they knew what I've been doing for the past few days, they'd be nagging my ear off." I said off-hand. Mei smiled softly.

"The poison worries me, along with that strange genjutsu." Ao said, coming out of his thoughts.

"I agree," Mei said. "If they were to use the poison against us, and if your summons are, indeed, specialists Tomiko-chan, I don't believe we'd be able to win against it. That genjutsu though, is startling."

"I am hoping that the poison won't be a problem for too long," I said. "When I left Kumonosu Valley, they were working on mass producing the poison to create a mixture of their own venoms and anti-venoms to act as an antidote. At least, that's what they tried explaining to me. They hope to have one made soon though, for the next time I see it being used. Which, by the way, I would have no problems sharing it with you. Also, I don't believe Yagura is the one casting the genjutsu, but the strange man he was meeting with."

"I appreciate the kind gesture regarding the antidote," Mei said smiling once more. "And we'll have to keep an out for anyone who appears suspicious."

We all shoot our heads in agreement.

"Now I'd like to move on to our final discussion."

Shishou opened his eyes once more, and I sent a comforting smiling Haku's way to calm him down.

"What do you want us to do?" Shishou drawled out.

"So quick to the punch," Mei laughed lightly. "But not wrong. I would like to see you, Zabuza, lead one final, but highly important mission with Haku-kun, Tomiko-chan, and Chōjūrō-kun as well."

"M-Me, Mei-sama?" Chōjūrō asked.

"Of course you," Mei said. "You are strong, Chōjūrō-kun. I have full confidence in your abilities."

Chōjūrō's eyes took on a sharp look of determination. "I can do it," he said. But then it was gone. "I hope."

I sweat dropped.

Haku finally took his eyes off me to focus on Mei. "What would you like us to do, Mei-sama?"

"After this meeting," she began to explain. "Ao and I will start mobilizing our forces. With Tomiko's special vision, we will be able to track down the location of this enemy camp. In order to keep our movements a surprise, we will have to keep the main army far back enough to stay out of range of any sensors they may have. Smaller forces are stealthier than larger ones, and this is where you four will come in. Once we arrive at our destination, you will break off and sneak into their camp. Then, you are to locate and assassinate all of their commanding officers, crippling their chain of command. Once that is completed, you are to create a diversion to signal the beginning of the attack. The diversion will be discussed now, so that we all understand what the signal is so that there are no misunderstandings."

We all sat in silence, letting what Mei just said soak in fully.

Zabuza began laughing. "I love my fucking job."

"We could set off flares." Haku suggested, ignoring Zabuza's outburst.

"T-that could work." Chōjūrō said. "But it might not as well."

"True," Ao chimed in. "They could use flares as a way of communication."

"And if a heavy fog rolled in, or if it started to rain, they may become less visible if not dysfunctional." Shishou said seriously.

"Well," I said, holding a small emphasis on the 'l'. "I could summon Jiji."

Shishou laughed again. "Fucking brilliant."

"Jiji?" Mei, Ao, and Chōjūrō all questioned together.

"He is the 'boss' spider of Kumonosu Valley," I said shrugging. "Considering all of their commanders will be out of the fight, I don't think they'll be able to come up with a strategy for battling Jiji _and_ the rebel forces. We could also meet towards the center of the camp once the commanders are taken care of to summon him there. That way, when I do summon him, they'll be so focused on his sudden presence that they shouldn't notice the oncoming attack until it's too late. He could make this a very easy victory."

"Kiri is not known for having many summoning contracts," Ao chimed in. "So, I doubt anyone other than the commanders would have anything available to summon. I am on board with this plan."

"I also think it is a wonderful idea," Mei said. "Are we all in agreement?"

Everyone nodded their heads, Zabuza being a little too eager.

 _'He probably can't wait for the fighting is all.'_ I thought, sweat dropping.

"Excellent!" Mei said, standing from the table. "Get ready to move out in one hour. We'll show Yagura that it's not too late to change the _tides_ of this war."

"I _sea_ what you did there," I said giggling.

"You have got to be kidding me." Shishou said, sighing into his hands.

"Careful Tomiko-chan," Mei said heading towards the exit with a disgruntled looking Ao and nervous Chōjūrō. "You might send Mr. Cranky off the _deep end_."

"These jokes are horrible," he said growling.

"It's not our fault you have such _dry_ humor Shishou!" I laughed, dodging a stray kunai.

"Haku, please make her stop."

"I don't know if I can, Zabuza-sama." Haku said, following me towards the exit. "But I will _shore_ try."

Suddenly, Zabuza was in our faces, swinging the Kubikiribōchō like a mad man.

We could tell there was no ill-intent behind the swing, but we still shot out of the tent cackling like a couple of school girls.

 _'The calm before the storm always calls for a bit of fun. Besides, riling him up is always so exhilarating.'_

"This is only the tip of the iceberg Zabuza-sama!"

"Haku's cracking jokes! Very n _ice_!"

"I'm going to kill you two brats!"

"Fufufu…"

 **Author's Notes:**

[04/05/15] Don't mind me, just dusting through some lines.

So hello. It has certainly been a while again, but not over a year this time! I do constantly think about the story, and am always thinking of things to add to it. I just got so busy with work and wedding stuff, (which is really stressful and difficult y'know!), that I barely had the mental capacity to do anything else. But June 24th was the wedding and now all that stressful stuff is over! Hurray! Maybe I'll be able to get some more story juice flowing, ne?

Speaking of the story, I have noticed that it is taking forever to get into Tomiko's choice of village and I apologize for that. I just get into a chapter thinking that it's going to finally happen, but then I start typing and things I never even thought about get into it and now it's all sorts of messed up. BUT, the next chapter will have this last mission where Tomiko and gang are assisting the rebels, their parting from The Land of Water, and the future of Tomiko's apprenticeship with Zabuza. So HOPEFULLY, chapter 10 OR definitely chapter 11 will have Tomiko deciding and arriving at her choice of Hidden Village. So there's that.

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions for the story, feel free to leave a review or send me a private message. I do respond to either of them with a message as soon as possible.

I was a little iffy at first about this chapter, but my husband liked it and so here it is! I hope you somewhat found it enjoyable.

Until next time!


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